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The Breakfast Buffet: Gonzaga battling human nature, Ohio State in position for a one seed, Nevada could play spoiler

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

Gonzaga is battling human nature
The nation’s top-ranked team looked bored and disinterested for much of Thursday night’s 18-point win at Pacific. None of us should be surprised. 17 of Gonzaga’s 18 wins this season have come by double figures and the Bulldogs haven’t played a power conference opponent since Dec. 26th when they trounced Virginia in Fort Worth. There’s a reason why Mark Few’s staff worked tirelessly to secure a high-profile non-conference game this week before coming up short — it needs to do anything it can to keep its team stimulated. 

Ohio State has put itself in position to earn a number one seed
I’m officially running out of adjectives for Chris Holtmann. Whether he’s at Butler or Ohio State, this guy always gets the most out of his teams and this year is no different. Ohio State now owns more Quad 1 wins (seven) than any other team in college basketball following Thursday’s victory at Iowa and continues to reiterate that it’s good enough to be a number one seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. In addition to the win at Iowa, the Buckeyes have also won games at Illinois, Wisconsin, and Rutgers. Ohio State also has a neutral court victory over UCLA on its resume in a game that was played at the CBS Sports Classic in December.

Nevada could emerge as a spoiler in the Mountain West
The Wolf Pack are probably a year away from being in the mix for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not capable of keeping a couple of their conference rivals out of this year’s field. Six of Nevada’s final eight regular season games are against Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State — three of the four teams in the Mountain West that are currently in the mix to hear their names called on Selection Sunday along with San Diego State. Steve Alford’s team is good enough to play spoiler multiple times between now and March 14th. The Wolf Pack have terrific guard play with Grant Sherfield and Desmond Cambridge along with two capable pieces up front with Warren Washington and Zane Meeks. All four of those players will return to Reno next season to pair with Oregon transfer Addison Patterson and Texas transfer Will Baker. 

On The Side

  • Seven teams that were ranked in this week’s AP Top 25 — Villanova, Houston, Tennessee, Creighton, Virginia Tech, Florida, and Purdue — lost this week to teams that weren’t ranked in this week’s AP Top 25. 
  • Kansas is now 8-2 this season in games where David McCormack scores in double figures. The 6-10 big man had a double-double — 18 points and 10 rebounds — in Tuesday’s win over Kansas State and has reached double figures in three straight games. The Jayhawks will next face West Virginia in Morgantown on Saturday. Tip off is at 2 PM ET on CBS. 
  • St. John’s (12-7) path to an NCAA Tournament bid won’t be an easy one. The Red Storm will next play back-to-back road games at Providence and Butler, with another road tilt set for Feb. 23rd at Villanova. Three of St. John’s four remaining home games are against Xavier, Seton Hall, and Providence. 
  • One thing not getting enough attention? The top seeds in the NCAA Tournament won’t have any geographic advantage due to all of the games being held in Indianapolis. The playing field will never be more level for lower seeded teams to pull upsets early in the bracket. 
  • No team appears to be more disrupted by its COVID-19 pause than Saint Louis. The Billikens are 0-2 since returning to action after being away for over a month. This team’s non-conference wins over LSU and NC State have also not accumulated the type of mileage that many expected in November and December. 

Daily Specials

  • Maryland at Penn State
  • Boise State at Nevada

Leftovers: