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The Breakfast Buffet: Houston/Texas Tech, St. John’s, Richie Saunders

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.

Things To Sample

Houston goes for revenge against Texas Tech
The Cougars’ one blemish in Big 12 play this season came against the Red Raiders, who may very well be the second-best team in this conference. Kelvin Sampson’s team will attempt to get some payback tonight in Lubbock at United Supermarkets Arena. It will not be easy. Texas Tech has won five straight home games and is getting Big 12 Player of the Year type numbers from JT Toppin, who had 22 points and eight rebounds in Saturday’s win over West Virginia.

St. John’s showed a glimpse of its ceiling against UConn
Now we know what Rick Pitino’s team will look like if it makes shots on offense. After struggling on offense for the majority of the season, the Red Storm scored 89 points and shot 46.9 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three-point range in a comfortable 14-point win over UConn on Sunday at MSG. The win puts St. John’s in position to a clinch a share of the Big East regular season title on Wednesday against Butler in Indianapolis (9 PM ET, CBS Sports Network). The Red Storm are now 24-4 and at least 20 games over .500 for the first time since the 1985-86 season.

Richie Saunders has emerged as one of the Big 12’s best players
BYU’s massive week with back-to-back wins over Kansas and Arizona was highlighted by two tremendous performances by Saunders, who continues to play the best basketball of his career. The 6-5 junior scored a combined 55 points in his last two games and made two key three throws in the Cougars’ dramatic win over the Wildcats on Saturday night in Tucson. His ascension has been a major storyline in BYU’s recent rise in the Big 12 under first-year head coach Kevin Young. The Cougars will next visit Arizona State on Wednesday.

On The Side.

  • Kansas is one loss away from having 10 or more defeats in back-to-back seasons for the first time under Bill Self. The Jayhawks are in Boulder tonight to face Colorado.
  • Dana Altman has gone to the Sweet 16 or further five times as Oregon’s head coach. Two of those trips came when the Ducks were a double digit seed and another in 2021 happened as a seven seed. This is the team that you want to avoid in the middle of your bracket. 
  • Illinois is 17-79 from three-point range during its current three-game losing streak.
  • Santa Clara scored 109 points, shot 54.2 percent from the field, and 60.5 percent from three-point range in a 30-point win on Saturday night over Washington State in Pullman. I’ll say it again: This is the bid stealer to watch in the WCC Tournament during Championship Week. 
  • We’re less than three weeks away from Selection Sunday and the ACC only has three locks — Duke, Clemson, and Louisville — for the NCAA Tournament. 

Daily Specials

  • North Carolina at Florida State
  • UTRGV at McNeese
  • Michigan at Nebraska
  • Houston at Texas Tech
  • Kansas at Colorado

Leftovers