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The Breakfast Buffet: Brooks Barnhizer, Rutgers’ dynamic freshmen enter the fire, Illinois visits Oregon

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

Brooks Barnhizer deserves more national attention
With all due respect due to Northwestern — who’s advanced to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments under Chris Collins — if Barnhizer played at one of the blue blood programs in the Big Ten, he’d regularly be talked about as a first-team All-American and a National Player of the Year candidate. The 6-6 forward is averaging 20.1 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 4.0 assists entering tonight’s game against Penn State in State College. He’s also had six straight games with at least 17 points and 10 rebounds. If the Wildcats — who are currently 10-3 overall — keep winning and progress towards a third straight trip to March Madness, Barnhizer will eventually get his due and be regularly mentioned among the best players in the sport.

Rutgers’ dynamic freshmen enter the fire
America has wondered for months how the Scarlet Knights’ first-year duo of Dylan Harper (22.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists) and Ace Bailey (18.2 points, 7.6 rebounds) would perform in the guts of Big Ten play. We’re going to find out in the next two weeks. Rutgers will visit Indiana tonight at Assembly Hall and then return to home to host Wisconsin, Purdue, and UCLA back-to-back-to-back. A trip to Pinnacle Bank Arena to play Nebraska will then follow. Harper and Bailey have combined to score 47.8 percent of Rutgers’ points this season. Steve Pikiell’s team currently checks in at 8-5 overall.

Illinois visits Oregon
Once in a while, we get a game during the regular season that feels like it could be played in March during the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. This is one of those games. Both of these teams have had tremendous moments of promise during the first two months of the season and both have the requisites to be threats to advance deep into March Madness. Both teams are also incredibly balanced. The Illini have five different players averaging between 9.4 points and 16.3 points while the Ducks have six players averaging between 9.3 points and 13.2 points. Keep a close eye on the point guard matchup between Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad (10.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists) and Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis (16.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists). This should be 40 minutes of fun in Eugene.

On The Side

  • Arkansas has quietly won six straight games since losing to Illinois on Thanksgiving Day in Kansas City. The Razorbacks have gotten a major boost defensively from Tennessee transfer Jonas Aidoo, who’s tallied 10 blocks in his last five outings. John Calipari’s team is 11-2 and will open SEC play on Saturday at Tennessee.
  • Dan Hurley told reporters postgame on Wednesday following UConn’s win over DePaul that Liam McNeeley (ankle) isn’t likely to be out long-term, but isn’t expected to play when the Huskies host Providence on Sunday. The 6-7 McNeeley had nine points and six rebounds in 25 minutes against the Blue Demons prior to injury.
  • Clemson is now 6-0 this season in games this season where Chauncey Wiggins scores in double figures.
  • Baylor freshman Rob Wright averaged 15 points and 6.4 assists during the month of December.
  • We’ll know a lot more about Georgetown after its next four games, which will be against Xavier, Marquette, UConn, and St. John’s. The Hoyas are currently 11-2 and already have two more wins than they did during all of last season in Ed Cooley’s first year with the program.

Daily Specials

  • Northwestern at Penn State
  • Purdue at Minnesota
  • Rutgers at Indiana
  • Maryland at Washington
  • Illinois at Oregon

Leftovers