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The Breakfast Buffet: Jeremy Fears, UCLA is desperate for a win against Rutgers, the Mountain West

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

Jeremy Fears is on track to have a “Cassius Winston type career” at Michigan State
These two point guards aren’t necessarily identical as players, but Fears has a chance to have a comparable career to Winston if he stays in East Lansing for the next four seasons. An elite push man for the Spartans’ traditional fast break, Fears is tailor made to for Tom Izzo’s style and is starting to excel as a table setting floor general. The 6-1 redshirt freshman had eight assists to just one turnover in Sunday’s win at Northwestern and has averaged 12.0 points, 9.0 assists, and just 1.0 turnover in Michigan State’s two wins this past week. The Spartans are now 14-2 and have won nine straight games.

UCLA is desperate for a win against Rutgers
In fact, desperate might be an understatement. The Bruins were 11-2 on Dec. 28th after a dramatic win over Gonzaga in Los Angeles, but have since lost three straight games in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights meanwhile are just 8-8 and have lost back-to-back games in Piscataway against Wisconsin and Purdue. UCLA is clearly the deeper and more experienced team entering this game, but the Bruins’ below average guard play makes them susceptible to a potential upset at the hands of the Scarlet Knights freshmen duo of Dylan Harper (20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists) and Ace Bailey (18.9 points, 7.6 rebounds). UCLA had 21 turnovers in Friday’s loss at Maryland. Mick Cronin needs to quickly stabilize his perimeter and that mission begins tonight in New Jersey.

The Mountain West is again going to push for a handful of NCAA Tournament bids
Utah State and San Diego State have been known commodities for the majority of this season, but teams like Boise State and New Mexico are also now coming to the forefront. What does it all mean long-term? The Mountain West won’t have six teams in the NCAA Tournament like it did a year ago, but three or four bids seems like a legitimate possibility for a league that always seems to deliver. As of Sunday, the four teams listed above were ranked in the ______ of the NET, but all four have proven their case at one point this season or another. Utah State and San Diego State have comfortably been in most bracket projections and Boise State already owns wins over Saint Mary’s and Clemson on its resume while New Mexico has beaten UCLA, USC, and the Aztecs in the only meeting between the two programs so far this season. I’ll say it again: The Mountain West always delivers. 

On The Side

  • Auburn’s Johni Broome (17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks) was diagnosed with a non-surgical ankle sprain after an MRI on Sunday morning and has no timetable for a return.
  • Kansas is allowing an average of 47.8 points since Shakeel Moore was inserted into the Jayhawks’ starting lineup.
  • Louisville’s Pat Kelsey is the early favorite to win ACC Coach of the Year honors. The Cardinals lost two players in their rotation — Koren Johnson and Kasean Pryor — to season-ending injuries, but are still 5-1 in ACC play for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
  • Villanova’s Eric Dixon (25.3 points) — college basketball’s leading scorer — has already made 54 three-point shots this season. He made 55 during all of last year.
  • Maryland is 6-0 this season in games where Tafara Gapare scores six or more points. The Terps will host Minnesota tonight in College Park.

Daily Specials

  • UCLA at Rutgers
  • Minnesota at Maryland
  • Boston College at Notre Dame

Leftovers