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The Breakfast Buffet: March Madness Edition

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

Ben McCollum is on a magic carpet ride
Two years ago, McCollum was the head coach of Northwest Missouri State (Division II). Today, he’s got Iowa one win away from the Final Four. Just four days after upsetting top-seeded Florida, the Hawkeyes’ incredible NCAA Tournament run continued on Thursday night in Houston with a dramatic 77-71 win over Nebraska. Iowa didn’t take its first lead in the game until the final minutes. It’s another milestone for the 44-year old McCollum, who’s quickly emerging as one of the top tacticians in the sport. Iowa will face Illinois on Saturday for the right to play during the final weekend of the college basketball season.

St. John’s returns to the big time against Duke
It’s been 27 years since the Red Storm have played in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but that will change tonight in Washington D.C. against the top-seeded Blue Devils. Making the Sweet 16 represents another tangible step for St. John’s under Rick Pitino. The weight class is going to be raised significantly. The Blue Devils are 34-2 and have only lost two games so far this season — one was at the buzzer and the other was in overtime. This is the best team that the Red Storm have faced under Pitino since the 2024 UConn team that won the national title.

Michigan/Alabama is a fascinating contrast of styles
The Wolverines are a power team with the most physical frontline in the sport. The Crimson Tide meanwhile, are a perimeter driven team that made 19 three-point shots in their last game against Texas Tech. Something has to give tonight in Chicago. Both of these head coaches — Michigan’s Dusty May and Alabama’s Nate Oats — have led teams to the Final Four in the last four years. Oats took the Crimson Tide to the Final Four while May went there with Florida Atlantic in 2023.

On The Side

  • Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn is averaging 21.3 points and 8.7 rebounds in three NCAA Tournament games.
  • Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has an 11-5 all-time record in the Sweet 16 entering tonight’s game against UConn in Washington D.C.
  • Five of the remaining 12 teams in the NCAA Tournament are from the Big Ten.
  • Vanderbilt is endeavoring to sign Mark Byington to a long-term contract extension after back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament, a source told College Hoops Today on Thursday. Nothing has been signed yet, but the Commodores’ administration began working well prior to the coaching carousel to lock up Byington, who’s considered to be on the list for the head coaching vacancy at North Carolina.
  • The good news for Boston College? UConn assistant Luke Murray is a tremendous hire. The bad news? This program hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 2009. Murray has his work cut out for him in Chestnut Hill.

Leftovers