College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Indiana/Illinois, L.J. Cason, Mikel Brown Jr.

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

Indiana/Illinois
The Big Ten is in prime position to have 10 or more teams reach the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday and these two teams are firmly in that equation. The Hoosiers enter today’s game in Champaign with five wins in their last six games and the emergence of Lamar Wilkerson has been the driving force. The veteran guard is averaging 28.2 points during that span and has separated himself as one of the sport’s best perimeter players. The Illini meanwhile are trying get their perimeter healthy after playing their last game without two starters — Kylan Boswell (hand) and Andrej Stojakovic (ankle) — who were both out of the lineup due to injuries. Tip off for today’s game is at 1 PM ET on CBS.

L.J. Cason is emerging for Michigan
Do the Wolverines have the best backup point guard in America? It’s definitely starting to look that way. Michigan’s bench is better than any group of reserves in the sport and Cason is a major reason why. In his last four games, the 6-2 floor general is averaging 12.8 points and 3.5 assists all while performing like a second starter at the most important position on the floor. The Wolverines will next travel to Mackey Arena on Tuesday night to face Purdue.

Mikel Brown Jr. is taking things to a different level for Louisville
After missing a little over a month due to a back injury, the 6-5 Brown is now displaying the type of ability that could carry the Cards deep into the NCAA Tournament. In a pair of wins this week over NC State and Baylor, Brown averaged a whopping 37.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists while shooting a ridiculous 14-21 from three-point range. With Brown back in tow, Louisville is firmly in the discussion to be the second-best team in the ACC behind Duke.

On The Side

  • Alex Karaban picked up his 116th career victory on Saturday against Georgetown — the most in UConn history.
  • Wisconsin is 11-3 since a December loss to Villanova in Milwaukee. The three defeats during that time for the Badgers? Purdue, USC, and Indiana. The latter two losses came by a combined three points and the loss against the Hoosiers was in overtime in Bloomington.
  • Duncan Powell’s vicious foul against Bryce Hopkins in Saturday’s game between Providence and St. John’s was by far the most egregious play we’ve seen during the 2025-26 season. The Big East needs to make a stand here. Anything less than a multi-game suspension for Powell will fail to send the appropriate message by the conference.
  • The SEC had three games tip off at 8:30 PM ET on Saturday — three! I’ll never understand why certain conferences play multiple games against each other at the same time. Never!
  • VCU has now won nine straight games and is 20-6. The Rams look like an NCAA Tournament team, but they won’t play in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large qualifier unless they run the table — which includes winning at Saint Louis — and make the finals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Who can save this league?!

Daily Specials

  • Indiana at Illinois
  • Belmont at Murray State
  • Seton Hall at Butler

Leftovers