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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

Dan Hurley thrives in the NCAA Tournament
And the numbers back it up. Hurley has a 20-5 career record in March Madness and is an astonishing 18-1 in the last four NCAA Tournaments at UConn. The only head coach to ever have a better winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament than Hurley? John Wooden.

Silas Demary Jr. is starting to look like Silas Demary Jr. again
An ankle injury slowed UConn’s floor general for the start of March Madness, but he’s now finally rounding into form. The 6-4 floor general tallied an impressive, seven points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and just one turnover in Saturday night’s 71-62 win over Illinois and is averaging nine points, seven rebounds, and 4.5 assists during the Huskies’ last two games. His improved health is tremendous sign for UConn entering Monday night’s national title game against Michigan.

Michigan showed an entirely new level of dominance against Arizona
The Wildcats entered Saturday’s matchup with the Wolverines with a program record 36 wins and all sorts of confidence. All of that soon dissipated. Michigan’s 91-73 win over Arizona was much more lopsided than the final score indicated and came with Yaxel Lendeborg only logging a total of 14 minutes due to injury. Just when you thought that Dusty May’s team couldn’t be more dominant, it went to a completely different level against the only other number one seed that was remaining in the NCAA Tournament.

On The Side

  • UConn is the first team to play in three national title games in a four-year span since Kentucky (1996-98) and Duke (1990-92)
  • Jayden Ross is a major breakout candidate for the 2026-27 season. The 6-7 forward has had two huge games off the bench in the NCAA Tournament for UConn and could this team’s next power forward after Alex Karaban’s graduation. Ross averaged 9.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in the Huskies’ two wins during March Madness against UCLA and Illinois.
  • You never know what’s going to happen in the transfer portal era, but Illinois could conceivably return every player next season that played in the Final Four except for Kylan Boswell, Ben Humrichous, and Keaton Wagler, who’s expected to declare for the 2026 NBA Draft.
  • Arizona entered the Final Four shooting 50.8 percent from the field in the NCAA Tournament. It shot just 37 percent against Michigan.
  • I’ll say it again: The Final Four should be in Indianapolis every year.

Leftovers