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The Breakfast Buffet: Baylor-West Virginia, 3 Big Ten teams could make Final Four, Oregon will be underseeded

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

West Virginia-Baylor was the game of the year in college basketball
Where do we sign to get two more meetings between these two teams over the next few weeks? Baylor’s 94-89 overtime win in Morgantown on Tuesday featured everything that a great game is supposed to possess. There was big shot making as both teams shot better than 46 percent from the field and 39 percent from three-point range. There were plenty of lead changes. And there was uncertainty regarding who was going to win the game until the very end. Both of these teams have the requisites to play for a national title on April 5th. Let’s hope they meet again next week in Kansas City as part of the Big 12 Tournament and then in late March or early April during the latter rounds of the NCAA Tournament. 

Three teams from the Big Ten could reach the Final Four 
Don’t rule it out of the realm of possibility. 36 years ago in 1985, three teams from the Big East — Villanova, Georgetown, and St. John’s — reached the Final Four in Lexington. The same thing could happen in a few weeks with the Big Ten. Illinois’ win at Michigan on Tuesday night without Ayo Dosunmu cements its legitimacy and the Wolverines, Ohio State, and Iowa all have what it takes to win four games in the NCAA Tournament as well. As of now, it would be a surprise if two teams from this league don’t have number one seeds on Selection Sunday. 

Oregon will be underseeded in the NCAA Tournament
The Ducks are 8-2 since Will Richardson rejoined the lineup and have the look of a team that is primed to make a major run in the NCAA Tournament. In addition to Richardson, Dana Altman’s squad has had personnel issues all season. LJ Figueroa did not play in an early season loss to Missouri and both Figueroa and Chris Duarte — the best guard in the Pac-12 — were absent from a late-January loss to Oregon State. Oregon (17-5) has always been a program that’s played its best when it mattered most under Altman and this year should be no different. Oregon enters tonight’s game against UCLA in Eugene with palpable momentum and is 21-3 against Pac-12 opponents during the month of March over the past five years. 

On The Side

  • Cade Cunningham is outstanding, but it’s time to start acknowledging just how good Oklahoma State’s other young pieces are. The Cowboys swept Oklahoma in the past week without their second-best player — Isaac Likekele — who was out with an injury. Mike Boynton has assembled a really good young nucleus in Stillwater with guys like Kalib Boone, Keylan Boone, Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, Rondel Walker, and Avery Anderson.
  • What has happened to Missouri? Since beating Alabama in Columbia on Feb. 6th, the Tigers have lost four of five and are just 7-7 in SEC play. Cuonzo Martin’s squad will close the regular season with games tonight at Florida and Saturday at home against LSU. 
  • Any hope that Seton Hall (13-10) has of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament will hinge on whether or not it beats UConn tonight in Newark. The Pirates have lost back-to-back games to Georgetown and Butler. 
  • Bubble teams across the country will be rooting for both St. Bonaventure and VCU to play in next week’s Atlantic 10 Tournament title game so that no “bid stealer” emerges from the conference. Both are currently the league’s two best bets to reach the NCAA Tournament, although neither is truly 100 percent safe. There’s absolutely no way that the Atlantic 10 will have a single seed in the bracket on Selection Sunday.
  • Drake’s ShanQuan Hemphill (foot) will meet with his doctor today, per Darian DeVries. If he’s cleared, his status will then be “day-to-day” leading into Arch Madness later this week. Hemphill leads the team in both scoring (14.1 PPG) and rebounding (6.3 RPG), but has not played since Feb. 10th.

Daily Specials

  • UConn at Seton Hall
  • Creighton at Villanova
  • San Diego State at UNLV
  • UCLA at Oregon
  • Stanford at USC

Leftovers: