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
A salute to Alex Karaban
UConn’s senior power forward got a proper sendoff on Saturday in Storrs as he was inducted into the “Huskies of Honor” at Gampel Pavilion before his team’s four-point win over Seton Hall. A starter on Dan Hurley’s team that won back-to-back national titles in 2023 and 2024, the 6-8 Karaban is a rarity in today’s current climate because he’s spent all four years of his college career at the same program. He’s also won at an incredibly high level. During his four years in Storrs, Karaban has an overall combined record of 119-25 and is the winningest player to ever player for UConn. He finished with 23 points in Saturday’s win while shooting 8-11 from the field and an impressive 5-6 from three-point range.
Ohio State has a golden opportunity against Purdue
The Buckeyes enter today’s tilt in Columbus with a 1-10 record in Quad 1 games, which makes today’s showdown with the Boilers as close to a must win as you can get if this team wants to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State could certainly string together a slew of wins during the Big Ten Tournament, but any push towards the right side of the bubble has to start with a victory today. Purdue meanwhile, is trying to maintain pace atop the bracket as a potential two seed on Selection Sunday. Matt Painter’s squad is coming off a two-point home loss on Friday against Michigan State. Tip off for today’s game is at 1:30 PM ET on CBS.
Michigan takes a hit
What a difference a day makes. A little less than 24 hours after the Wolverines clinched an outright Big Ten regular season title on Friday night against Illinois, the school announced that L.J. Cason (8.4 points) will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season due to a torn ACL. This is a massive blow to a team that has dreams and aspirations to win a national title. The 6-2 Cason had separated himself as the best backup point guard in college basketball and his absence will put even more pressure on Elliot Cadeau (10.1 points, 5.5 assists) moving forward. Michigan doesn’t have it what had and time will tell, if it still has enough to be the last team standing on April 6th in Indianapolis.
On The Side
- Caleb Foster has 16 assists and just two turnovers in Duke’s last four games.
- One thing I didn’t think I’d write last summer? Purdue has lost four times this season at Mackey Arena.
- Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu has 10 double-doubles in his last 14 games.
- Since joining the Big Ten, UCLA is 21-3 in conference games played in the Pacific Time Zone and 3-11 in the Central and Eastern Time Zones.
- Georgia Tech has not earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament since 2010.
Daily Specials
- Tulane at South Florida
- Purdue at Ohio State
- Murray State at Bradley
- Michigan State at Indiana
- Charleston at UNC Wilmington
