College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Illinois/Michigan State, Auburn, the Big East

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

Illinois/Michigan State
This highly anticipated Big Ten showdown features one team — Michigan State — that’s currently on a 10-game winning streak and another — Illinois — that looks like it possesses the highest long-term ceiling of any team in the conference. A tremendous January litmus test for both sides, it will be interesting to see how the Spartans’ big men deal with the Illini’s Tomislav Ivisic, who makes it very difficult for traditional post players to stay on the floor because of his ability to stretch the defense from the three-point range. Brad Underwood’s squad is currently 3-1 in true road games this season. Expect a Sweet 16 caliber atmosphere this afternoon in East Lansing. Tip off is at Noon ET on CBS.

Auburn is beating quality opponents without Johni Broome
The Tigers beat two teams this past week — Mississippi State and Georgia — who were ranked in the Top 23 of last week’s ROTHSTEIN 45 without Broome (17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds), who’s the current favorite to be the National Player of the Year. That’s incredibly impressive. Auburn’s win over Mississippi State without Broome was by 22 points while it only won at Georgia by a single basket. Nevertheless, the Tigers stayed on pace to remain in the pole position to be the top seed in the South Region in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Why is that so important? Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, which is only 114 miles from Auburn’s campus.

The Big East was only mostly dead
Remember when this was only going to be a three-bid league? To quote Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco, “forget about it”! Creighton’s win on Saturday at UConn coupled with Xavier’s road triumph at Marquette completely changes the ceiling for the Big East for Selection Sunday. UConn, Marquette, and St. John’s have been the known commodities for this league all season, but the Big East now looks significantly deeper than it did a week ago. After only having three teams in March Madness a year ago, this conference could very well wind up with four or five bids on Selection Sunday.

On The Side

  • Has Houston’s J’Wan Roberts officially graduated from Glue Guy status? It certainly feels like it. The all-time winningest player in the history of the Cougars’ program, Roberts has scored a total of 41 points in his last two games and had the decisive basket in Saturday’s road win at UCF.
  • St. John’s is now in sole possession of first place in the Big East standings. The last time that the Red Storm won a share of the league’s regular season title? The 1991-92 season, which was Lou Carnesecca’s final year as head coach.
  • Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn is averaging 7.3 assists during the Cards’ current eight-game winning streak.
  • Santa Clara’s win on Saturday night at Gonzaga was its first road win over a team ranked in the AP Top 25 since Dec. 4th, 1993. The point guard for the Broncos that season? Steve Nash.
  • Arkansas’ 0-5 start in SEC play is the first time that John Calipari has been 0-5 in conference play since the 1988-89 season, which was his first year as a Division 1 head coach when he was at UMass.

Daily Specials

  • Illinois at Michigan State
  • Nebraska at Maryland
  • Northwestern at Michigan
  • Memphis at Charlotte
  • TCU at Baylor

Leftovers