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The Breakfast Buffet: Jalen Hood-Schifino, LSU, NCAA Tournament needs to make one tweak

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

Jalen Hood-Schifino can no longer play like a freshman
And he hasn’t the last two games. Following Indiana’s 22-point loss at Kansas on Dec. 17th, Hood-Schifino elevated his level of play and has averaged an impressive 17.5 points, five assists, and three rebounds in his last two games. Despite turning the ball over eight times in that span, the 6-6 freshman has looked the part of a player that’s capable of holding down the lead guard spot for the Hoosiers during the guts of Big Ten play. He’ll have to with veteran point guard Xavier Johnson out of the lineup indefinitely with a foot injury. Any subpar play for Hood-Schifino moving forward will mean subpar play for Indiana (10-3). The Hoosiers will next play at Iowa on Jan. 5th.

LSU is about to go through the gamut
I really hope that Matt McMahon had a nice holiday season because his next month is going to be pure misery. McMahon — who’s in his first year as LSU’s head coach after a successful stint at Murray State — has done a terrific job thus far with the Tigers, leading LSU to 11 wins in its first 12 games. Now comes the hard part. The Tigers will open SEC play on Wednesday at home against Arkansas which will be followed with back-to-back road games against Kentucky and Texas A&M. Then comes a home game against Florida prior to a trip to Alabama which precedes a pair of home games in Baton Rouge against Auburn and Tennessee. A trip to Bud Walton Arena to play Arkansas is next and then January will finally conclude with a home game against Texas Tech in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Yikes!

The NCAA Tournament needs to make one tweak
Someone recently asked me what I wanted for the holiday season and I said “a small change to the NCAA Tournament”. And no, this has NOTHING to do with expansion! I’ve said this before and now, I’ll say it again: The NCAA Tournament should slightly tweak its current model by having the final eight at-large teams play in the First Four in Dayton, which would make the first two days of the event more compelling. It would also then reward all 32 automatic qualifiers with a place in the Round of 64, which they ultimately deserve. If you’re good enough to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, then you deserve to experience what it feels like to play on that special Thursday and Friday in March when the entire nation shuts down for the greatest event in sports. If the final eight at-large teams played in Dayton last season, these would have been the eight programs that would have been featured in the First Four: Notre Dame, Indiana, Rutgers, Wyoming, Michigan, Iowa State, Davidson, and Miami. In my opinion, that’s a little more compelling than a pair of a games to determine which two No. 16 seeds advance from Dayton to the Round of 64.

On The Side

  • Purdue has a weapon in Trey Kaufman-Renn. The 6-9 redshirt freshman is averaging 11.3 points in the six games this season where he’s logged 15 minutes or more. Remember the name.
  • Villanova’s Justin Moore (achilles) is returning to practice on a limited basis, a source told College Hoops Today. There is still no timetable for a return. The 6-4 Moore is an All-Big East First-Team caliber player when he’s healthy and averaged 14.8 points and 4.8 rebounds last season.
  • Four of Arizona’s top six scorers — Azuolas Tubelis, Courtney Ramey, Kerr Kriisa, and Cedric Henderson Jr. — are shooting 40 percent or better from three-point range.
  • The top two transfers in the ACC are Wake Forest’s Tyree Appleby (18 points, 5.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds) and Pitt’s Blake Hinson (17.3 points, 7.4 rebounds).
  • From Nov. 30th to Jan. 18th, TCU (10-1) will play one game outside of the state of Texas.

Leftovers