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The Breakfast Buffet: Tennessee, North Carolina aims for a big win, Steve Alford steps back into the spotlight

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

Tennessee’s schedule gives it an advantage in the SEC
This is ONLY January, but it’s important to always be looking towards Selection Sunday, which is just eight weeks from this upcoming Sunday. The Vols — who are currently 13-2 overall — host Vanderbilt tonight in Knoxville and do not have a remaining road game on their regular season schedule against a team who was ranked in the Top 25 of this week’s ROTHSTEIN 45. The closest thing is a visit to Auburn — who was ranked 26th in this week’s ROTHSTEIN 45 — in their regular season finale on March 4th. Alabama (13-2) meanwhile, still has to play road games at Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. This could give Rick Barnes’ club an inside track to win the SEC regular season title and potentially earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

North Carolina aims for a big win at Virginia
The Tar Heels won both meetings against the Cavaliers last season, highlighted by a 20-point rout in the ACC Tournament. Prior to last season, Virginia had won seven consecutive games against North Carolina. While Hubert Davis’ team has won six of its last seven entering tonight’s tilt in Charlottesville, it’s imperative that the Tar Heels begin to start accumulating some wins of significance on their resume if they hope to enter the NCAA Tournament with a quality seed. North Carolina currently only has one Quad 1 win, which came against Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic in December.

Steve Alford steps back into the spotlight
Nevada lost both Grant Sherfield (Oklahoma) and Desmond Cambridge (Arizona State) to the transfer portal following last season, but will still enter tonight’s game at San Diego State with a 14-3 overall record and a perfect 4-0 mark in Mountain West play. Alford — who’s in his fourth season with the Wolf Pack — has yet to reach the NCAA Tournament during his tenure in Reno, but can take a major step in that direction if he earns a win tonight at Viejas Arena. Nevada’s attack is led by a troika of Jared Lucas (17 points), Kenan Blackshear (14.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists), and Will Baker (12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds).

On The Side

  • Matt Painter said on this week’s edition of the College Hoops Today Podcast that he feels bad for Trey Kaufman-Renn, who only played six minutes in Purdue’s win over Penn State on Sunday at The Palestra. “He’s an all-conference caliber player, but he’s playing behind Zach Edey,” Painter said of the 6-9 redshirt freshman. “Trey’s only a freshman, but the truth is it’s really hard to take Zach out of the game.” Edey went for 30 points and 13 rebounds in the victory. Kaufman-Renn has scored in double figures in four games already this season.
  • Iowa State is 11-2 over the past two seasons in games that have been decided by five points or fewer, including a 4-0 mark this season.
  • Johni Broome is starting to get rolling for Auburn. The transfer from Morehead State has tallied three straight double-doubles and is averaging 15.3 points and 11 rebounds over his last three games entering tonight’s matchup with Ole Miss.
  • One thing that I didn’t think I’d be writing on Jan. 10th? Northwestern is 12-3 with wins at both Michigan State and Indiana after losing both Pete Nance (North Carolina) and Ryan Young (Duke) to the transfer portal.
  • One of my biggest pet peeves? When certain conferences schedule multiple games during the same TV time slot. I understand that certain things pay the bills, but this just isn’t the best way to market a product. The Big Ten had six teams playing at the same time at one point in the early afternoon window on Sunday.

Daily Specials

  • Michigan State at Wisconsin
  • Oklahoma State at Kansas State
  • Texas Tech at Iowa State
  • North Carolina at Virginia
  • Oklahoma at Kansas

Leftovers