College Hoops Today

Serving College Basketball 365 Days a Year

The Breakfast Buffet: Home cooking for Michigan, Isaiah Evans, Mark Sears

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.

Things To Sample

Home cooking for Michigan
The next time that the Wolverines will play a game outside of their home state will be their first game in the Big Ten Tournament and that could bode well for this team’s chances of winning a Big Ten regular season title in their first season under Dusty May. Michigan will host Rutgers tonight and then Illinois and Maryland back-to-back before closing the regular season at Michigan State on March 9th. Things are aligned for the Wolverines — who are currently 21-6 — to finish strong prior to the postseason.

Isaiah Evans could be a difference maker for Duke
One common theme associated with teams that win national titles is they all normally boast a dynamic scorer in reserve. That’s what Evans is emerging as for Duke. The 6-6 freshman has scored 50 points in the Blue Devils’ last three games and is an impressive 13-19 from three-point range during that span. If Evans continues to perform like he has over the past week and a half then the ceiling for Duke — who’s currently 25-3 overall and projected to be a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament — becomes even higher. Keep a close on Evans over the next few games as the Blue Devils will likely be playing without Tyrese Proctor (11.8 points), who suffered a bone bruise in his knee in Tuesday night’s win at Miami.

Mark Sears is doing Mark Sears things
A mid-season slump is now a thing of the past as Sears has regained his All-American form. The 6-1 lefty has been terrific in the Crimson Tide’s last three games and is again showing why he was a National Player of the Year candidate prior to the season. In Alabama’s last three games, Sears is averaging 28.9 points, 6.3 assists, and 3.0 rebounds. The Crimson Tide can’t get back to the Final Four for the second consecutive season unless Sears is playing at a high level like he has over the past few weeks. Nate Oats’ team will resume action on Saturday in Knoxville against Tennessee.

On The Side.

  • Louisville has now won 10 more games this season under Pat Kelsey — 22 — than it did in the previous two seasons combined.
  • Baylor and Kansas are a combined 18-16 in Big 12 play. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.
  • Saint Mary’s freshman Mikey Lewis has emerged into one of the best sixth men in the sport. The 6-3 Lewis is averaging 8.9 points entering tonight’s game at Loyola Marymount (11 PM ET, CBS Sports Network) and has scored a combined 30 points in his last two outings.
  • VCU’s four primary guards — Max Shulga, Joe Bamisile, Phillip Russell, and Zeb Jackson — have combined to 64.8 percent of the Rams’ points this season. The Rams are 23-5 and will next host Davidson on Friday night.
  • There are just two power conference games in college basketball during the next two days. Schedule makers have to do better moving forward on Thursdays and Fridays during the regular season.

Daily Specials

  • Rutgers at Michigan
  • Saint Mary’s at Loyola Marymount

Leftovers