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The Breakfast Buffet: Houston needs more out of its frontcourt, Bryce Hopkins, Purdue

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

Houston needs more out of its frontcourt
Kelvin Sampson said in December after the Cougars beat Arkansas in Newark that the growth of his team’s interior play would dictate whether or not it would be able to earn a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. Saturday’s performance against Texas Tech was a concerning performance. In the loss to the Red Raiders, Houston surrendered 90 points — its most in a regulation game since 2018 — and also only got a combined eight points and 14 rebounds from Chris Cenac, Joseph Tugler, and Kalifa Sakho, who are this team’s three primary frontcourt players. The Cougars will try remedy their production on the baseline tonight in Fort Worth against an underrated TCU team.

Bryce Hopkins is playing like Bryce Hopkins
St. John’s prized interior transfer is playing like he did a few years ago at Providence. During the Red Storm’s six-game winning streak, the 6-7 Hopkins is averaging 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting an impressive 45.2 percent from the field. With Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor (15.7 points, 7.5 rebounds), St. John’s now boasts one of the best power forward/center combos in the sport. The Red Storm will go for their seventh straight win tonight at MSG against Butler.

Something feels off with Purdue
The Boilers’ losing streak is now at three games after Tuesday night’s loss at Indiana and something definitely feels off in West Lafayette. Purdue played well enough to win last week at UCLA and led late in the game on Saturday at Mackey Arena against Illinois before falling short. The loss to the Hoosiers was a bit more alarming as the Boilers trailed for the majority of the game. There’s still major concern over senior shooting guard Fletcher Loyer, who has only tallied a total of 19 points during Purdue’s current losing streak.

On The Side

  • How good is Duke’s defense? Prior to Monday night’s 83-52 win over Louisville, the fewest points that the Cards had scored in a game this season with Mikel Brown Jr. in the lineup was 74.
  • Arizona is 133-33 (80.1 percent) with Tommy Lloyd as its head coach.
  • Texas Tech is 8-1 this season when Jaylen Petty scores in double figures. The one loss during that span? At Houston.
  • Villanova currently has six different players — Bryce Lindsay, Tyler Perkins, Duke Brennan, Acaden Lewis, Devin Askew, and Matt Hodge — averaging in double figures.
  • Santa Clara is 17-5 overall and will take a four-game winning streak into tonight’s game against San Francisco (11 PM ET, CBS Sports Network). The Broncos have won 20 or more games in four straight seasons under Herb Sendek, but have yet to break through and reach the NCAA Tournament.

Daily Specials

  • Butler at St. John’s
  • Tennnessee at Georgia
  • Texas at Auburn
  • Houston at TCU
  • Florida at South Carolina

Leftovers