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The Breakfast Buffet: North Carolina, Seton Hall, Boise State/Colorado State

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

North Carolina is starting to look like North Carolina
That doesn’t mean that the Tar Heels are all of a sudden going to be mentioned with the best teams in the country, but it’s clear that this team is playing better. North Carolina has now won six of their last seven games following Tuesday’s win at Pitt and are clearly trending upward. Roy Williams’ squad outrebounded the Panthers 37-29 and had 14 offensive rebounds as a team, regularly getting second shots to extend possessions. The Tar Heels’ next two game will be on the road at Clemson and Duke. North Carolina’s front court troika of Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot, and Day’Ron Sharpe combined for a whopping 43 points and 23 rebounds against Pitt. 

Seton Hall controls its place in the landscape
It’s been eight days since the Pirates lost a heartbreaker at Villanova and now they have two opportunities to move the needle in the next 80 hours. As evidenced by its performance last week against the Wildcats, Kevin Willard’s group is better than its 9-6 record and has the potential to be a dangerous NCAA Tournament team in March if it can refine a few things over the next month. That starts with tonight’s matchup with Creighton in Newark; Villanova will also visit New Jersey this week and plays Seton Hall on Saturday. These two games present two massive opportunities for the Pirates to make a statement.

It’s litmus test time for Boise State
13 straight wins have put the Broncos in position to be nationally relevant. Tonight, we’ll find out how they handle the attention. Boise State begins a two-game set this evening at Colorado State, who just like the Broncos, are in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Rams already own wins this season at both San Diego State and Utah State. Leon Rice’s squad is currently 13-1, with its only loss coming at Houston in a game that it played without both Emmanuel Akot (7.4 points) and Devonaire Doutrive (10.6 points). Tip off is at 9 PM ET on CBS Sports Network.

On The Side

  • Sam Hauser is starting to thrive for Virginia. The Marquette transfer is averaging 19 points over his last three games and is 15-23 from three-point range during that span. The Cavaliers haven’t lost since Dec. 26th when they fell to Gonzaga.
  • Following Tuesday’s win over Kentucky, Alabama is 9-0 in SEC play for the first time since the 1955-56 season. The Crimson Tide have now won 10 straight games.
  • There’s no time like the present for Colorado. The Buffaloes will play five straight games in Boulder between now and Feb. 11th. If this team wants to make a push for a Pac-12 regular season title, the time is now. 
  • Maryland sophomore Donta Scott has already made 28 three-point this season. He made 25 during all of last year as a freshman. The Terps host Wisconsin tonight in College Park and a regular season sweep over the Badgers would go a long way for this team’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
  • Save these dates: Feb. 13th and 14th. Why? These mark the dates of the two regular season meetings between Loyola Chicago and Drake — the two top teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. Porter Moser’s squad has won 10 of its last 11 games since losing back-to-back games to Wisconsin and Richmond in December. 

Daily Specials

  • Miami at Florida State
  • Penn State at Ohio State
  • Creighton at Seton Hall
  • Wisconsin at Maryland
  • Louisville at Clemson

Leftovers: