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The Breakfast Buffet: Gonzaga finally gets punched, Mark Pope, Xavier has work to do at MSG

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 finally got punched
For the first time since an early December game against West Virginia, Gonzaga was pushed. That’s a credit to BYU. The Cougars led the Bulldogs by 12 at halftime in Tuesday night’s WCC Tournament title game, but Gonzaga rallied in the second half to win the game by 10. Gonzaga needed a test like this after ripping through its opponents like a chainsaw through butter over the last three months. Mark Few’s team will enter the NCAA Tournament at 26-0 with a chance to be the first undefeated team to win a national title since Indiana in 1976.

Mark Pope deserves credit for the job he’s done at BYU
BYU fans may not want to hear that this morning after last night’s loss to Gonzaga, but it needs to be pointed out what Pope has accomplished during his first two seasons in Provo. The Cougars are a combined 44-14 over the past two seasons and have been in position to be a single digit seed in the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years. That’s an impressive feat for a program from the WCC not named Gonzaga. You won’t want to play this team during the next few weeks. 

Xavier has work to do at MSG
The Musketeers need to win at least one game this week in the Big East Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. They may need to win two to be safe depending on what happens elsewhere around the country. One year ago, Xavier was in a very similar position and lost its first Big East Tournament game against DePaul. There’s no way of knowing if this program would have wound up hearing its name on Selection Sunday if the NCAA Tournament wasn’t cancelled due to COVID-19. Three years ago, this program was a one seed in the bracket. It hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since. 

The talk of teams “opting out” of conference tournaments was just talk
So much for that. After weeks of hearing chatter that teams were preparing not to play in their respective league tournaments due to COVID-19, not one program in a major conference has currently decided to go in that direction. College basketball is far from normal, but as of now, it’s still moving forward in normal fashion during Championship Week. That’s a very good thing. 

Seeds are essentially meaningless in mid-major conference tournaments
Entering Tuesday, seven top-seeded teams from mid-major leagues — UMBC, James Madison, Wagner, Belmont, Navy, South Dakota State, and Georgia State — were eliminated from their respective conference tournaments and did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament. This is the dark side of March. There are not many greater pressures in college basketball than being the head coach of a heavy favorite in a mid-major conference tournament. One bad half can end a dream season. For some of the teams listed above, it has.

Leftovers: