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The Breakfast Buffet: Houston’s depth, Marcus Domask, Ed Cooley attempts to play spoiler

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’s depth is now a major concern
The Cougars may be on track to be a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament, but they’re far from full strength. Kelvin Sampson announced on Monday that freshman big man Joseph Tugler (3.8 points, 4.1 rebounds) — who was Houston’s third primary post player — will miss the remainder of the season with a foot injury. This comes on the heels of two other rotation players — Ramon Walker (knee) and Terrance Arceneaux (achilles) — who were also lost for the year with season-ending injuries. All three of those players averaged double figure minutes. The Cougars may be a trendy pick to reach the Final Four, but they’re now severely limited moving forward in terms of their personnel. Houston is 26-3 overall and will next play at UCF on Wednesday.

Marcus Domask is playing like an All-Big Ten first-team caliber player
Terrence Shannon Jr. (22 points, 4.4 assists) is playing like an All-American for Illinois, but it would be wise to also pay attention to his running mate. The 6-6 Domask — who spent the first four years of his career at Southern Illinois before transferring — has been a seamless addition for the Illini all while separating himself as one of the best players in the Big Ten. During conference play, Domask is averaging 18.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists entering tonight’s game against Purdue in Champaign. There’s not five players in the Big Ten playing better than this guy.

Ed Cooley attempts to play spoiler
Cooley’s first season at Georgetown hasn’t been one to remember, but he can create a memorable moment by beating Providence — a place where he was the head coach from 2011-23 — tonight in Washington D.C. The Friars are still very much in play to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but they need to win their final two regular season games, starting with tonight’s matchup against the Hoyas. Providence will finish the regular season on Saturday at home against UConn. The Hoyas are just 9-20 in their first season under Cooley and have lost 13 of their last 14 games, but a win tonight would effectively knock the Friars out of the at-large picture.

On The Side

  • Marquette announced on Monday that Tyler Kolek will miss both of the Golden Eagles’ final regular season games this season against UConn and Xavier due to an oblique injury and will be re-evaluated before the Big East Tournament. Kolek did not play in Saturday’s loss at Creighton and is the reigning Big East Player of the Year.
  • Arizona’s Oumar Ballo has tallied nine consecutive double-doubles.
  • BYU’s Aly Khalifa has 18 assists and ZERO turnovers in his last four games.
  • Memphis could go to the Sweet 16 or lose in the first round of the AAC Tournament. This is the most mercurial team in college basketball.
  • Frank Martin is a program builder. He took Kansas State to the Elite Eight and South Carolina to the Final Four before taking his current post at UMass. Now in his second year in Amherst, he’s led the Minutemen to 19 wins. That’s the most this program has had since 2014, which was the last time that it played in the NCAA Tournament.

Daily Specials

  • Purdue at Illinois
  • Alabama at Florida
  • Providence at Georgetown
  • Kansas State at Kansas
  • Nevada at Boise State

Leftovers