College Hoops Today

Serving College Basketball 365 Days a Year

The Breakfast Buffet: Baylor trending towards being a blue blood, do not punt on Seton Hall, Michigan State/Northwestern

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

Baylor is trending towards being a blue blood
The Bears would have been a number one seed in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, but it was canceled due to COVID. They then won last year’s NCAA Tournament in dominant fashion. And after Saturday’s 77-72 win over Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum, Baylor — who is now 13-0 — will again be ranked first in this week’s AP Top 25. That’s an incredible feat considering that the Bears lost four starters — Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, MaCio Teague, and Mark Vital — from last year’s group that won it all. Scott Drew’s program probably needs another national title to officially be mentioned in the same breath as a blue blood, but it’s definitely trending in that direction. Baylor is a combined 67-6 over the past three seasons.

Do not punt on Seton Hall
Buy stock in this team. Lots of it. The Pirates may have lost back-to-back games over the past week, but they also took Villanova and Providence to the wire without two key frontcourt pieces in Ikey Obiagu and Tyrese Samuel, who were out due to health and safety protocols. That’s an incredible accomplishment considering the fact that Seton Hall (9-3) only had eight available players for each of those games due to COVID and had to operate without a true center in its rotation. Kevin Willard’s squad can compete for a Big East regular season title if it gets back to full strength.

Michigan State/Northwestern
The Wildcats have three of their next four games at home, starting with today against the Spartans — a team that is currently ranked seventh in the ROTHSTEIN 45 — and has only lost this season to Kansas and Baylor. Northwestern (8-2) has its best team since it went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and is undefeated with veteran guard Chase Audige (11 points, 3.3 rebounds) in the lineup. Audige missed the first seven games of the year due to a hip injury. Chris Collins has a veteran team that won’t be intimidated by Michigan State (11-2) as Northwestern beat the Spartans by 14 last season in Evanston. The Wildcats have the requisites to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten.

On The Side

  • Over the last five years, Villanova is 113-32 with Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels as members of the Wildcats’ program. There won’t be a dry eye at this team’s Senior Day in March.
  • Is a dream season emerging for Providence (13-1)? That’s to be determined, but this is definitely Ed Cooley’s best team since he had Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil in 2016 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
  • The sleeper game of the day is in Dallas as SMU (10-3) hosts UCF (9-2). With major injuries at Houston, either one of these teams could win the American Athletic Conference regular season title. The Knights beat Michigan on Thursday in Orlando.
  • UConn transfer Josh Carlton has been a revelation for Houston. The 6-11 big man only averaged 11.3 minutes last season for the Huskies due to a crowded frontcourt, but has found a home with the Cougars. In his last five games, Carlton is averaging 13.6 points, seven rebounds, and 1.6 blocks. Houston returns to the court this afternoon against Temple in North Philadelphia.
  • Kyle Neptune deserves credit for the job that he’s doing in his first year as Fordham’s head coach. The former Villanova assistant has the Rams off to an 8-5 start and was very competitive in a pair of December losses to both St. John’s and Miami.

Daily Specials

  • Michigan State at Northwestern
  • UCF at SMU
  • Indiana at Penn State
  • Houston at Temple
  • Ohio State at Nebraska

Leftovers