College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Hunter Dickinson, Alabama’s depth, Tyler Bilodeau

Who’s hungry for college basketball?

Here’s today’s installment of “The Breakfast Buffet”, a daily column that can be found here every single morning getting you caught up to date on everything that’s happened from the day/night before and everything that’s going to happen in the next 24 hours.

Mangia!

Things To Sample

Hunter Dickinson could be in line for a big game against North Carolina
Is the Tar Heels’ three-headed monster up front of Jalen Washington, Jae’Lyn Withers, and Ven-Allen Lubin good enough to compete at the highest levels of college basketball? We’ll have a better idea tonight when North Carolina visits Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. The Tar Heels’ question marks up front post-Armando Bacot could open up the the opportunity for the 7-2 Dickinson — who had 16 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes earlier in the week against Howard — to have a massive game. Dickinson averaged 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds last season in his first season in the Jayhawks’ program.

The use of Alabama’s depth is something to monitor closely
Do the Crimson Tide have too many players? It’s definitely a talking point once this team starts playing higher level competition. 11 players on Alabama’s roster logged double figure minutes in Monday night’s blowout win over UNC Asheville and that doesn’t include Chris Youngblood, who’s out indefinitely due to an ankle injury. The 6-4 Youngblood averaged 15.3 points last season at South Florida and was the Co-AAC Player of the Year in 2023-24. The Crimson Tide return to action tonight in Tuscaloosa against Arkansas State.

Tyler Bilodeau makes his national debut for UCLA
Only the true college basketball junkies know about the 6-9 Bilodeau, who spent the first two seasons of his college career at Oregon State before transferring to Westwood. That could change after tonight. The Bruins’ showdown with New Mexico in Las Vegas (11 PM ET, CBS Sports Network) is the first major test for Mick Cronin’s revamped roster, which includes the skilled Bilodeau as a focal point. He had 18 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes in UCLA’s opener against Rider. Capable of tantalizing opponents in the low post or facing the basket on the perimeter, Bilodeau may very well be the most underrated player who went into the transfer portal during the offseason. His tenure in obscurity officially ends tonight.

On The Side

  • Georgetown’s Thomas Sorber looks like he’s in position to the Big East’s second-best freshman behind UConn’s Liam McNeeley. The 6-10 big man had 20 points and 13 rebounds in his college debut against Lehigh on Wednesday night. Remember the name.
  • UCF’s Jaylin Sellers — who did not play in the Knights’ upset win over Texas A&M on Monday night — has no timetable for a return and is being listed as day-to-day with a back injury, Johnny Dawkins told College Hoops Today on Thursday. The 6-4 Sellers averaged 15.9 points and 3.6 rebounds last season as a starter. UCF will next host Purdue Fort Wayne tonight in Orlando.
  • Bradley transfer Connor Hickman could be a major weapon in reserve for Cincinnati. The 6-3 guard came off the bench to score 13 points and was 3-4 from three-point range in the Bearcats’ opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Remember: Wes Miller’s team only shot 32.4 percent from three-point range last season.
  • Tommy Amaker told College Hoops Today that Harvard freshman Robert Hinton is as good as any young scoring player that he’s had during his tenure with the Crimson. That includes Malik Mack — who transferred to Georgetown after last season — and Jeremy Lin. The 6-5 Hinton had 27 points in his first ever college game earlier in the week against Marist. Harvard will play Navy tonight in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis. Tip off is at 8:30 PM ET on CBS Sports Network.
  • Kudos to Stanford, who played two games this week that started at 1 PM local time in Palo Alto. With the high volume of games each day in college basketball, there’s a huge market for late afternoon tip-offs to eventually become a regular thing for East Coast viewers.

Daily Specials

  • VCU/Boston College (Veterans Classic)
  • Arkansas State at Alabama
  • North Carolina at Kansas
  • Arizona State/Santa Clara (Las Vegas)
  • UCLA/New Mexico (Las Vegas)

Leftovers