College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Keaton Wagler, St. John’s/UConn, NC State

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

Keaton Wagler looks like the Big Ten Player of the Year and a First-Team All-American
Who would have said that prior to the start of the season? The 6-6 Wagler is taking college basketball by storm and is the heartbeat of yet another terrific season for Illinois (19-3) under Brad Underwood. Since losing to UConn on Black Friday at MSG, Wagler is averaging 20.8 points 5.5 assists, and 4.8 rebounds during an impressive 14-game stretch that has featured 13 victories for the Illini. As Wagler goes, so does this basketball team. His production has put him firmly in the conversation with guys like Purdue’s Braden Smith (15.3 points, 8.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds), Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg (14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds), and Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears (14.9 points, 8.8 assists) as arguably the best player in one of the best leagues in the country.

St. John’s and UConn can’t get caught looking ahead
The most anticipated regular season game of 2025-26 will occur on Friday night when these two programs square off at MSG, but both the Red Storm and Huskies can’t look past their respective games tonight. St. John’s is in Chicago to take on DePaul while UConn is home against Xavier and a loss by either team will deflate some of the buildup for Friday night’s showdown at the World’s Most Famous Arena. The Red Storm have currently won seven games in a row while the Huskies will take a 17-game winning streak into tonight’s matchup with the Musketeers.

Things are about to get real for NC State
Will Wade deserves credit for rallying the Wolfpack to a 16-6 record and eight wins in their last 10 games, but the next few weeks are going to be a completely different animal. A vicious February schedule for NC State starts tonight in Dallas against a very good SMU team, who seems primed to make the NCAA Tournament in its second season under Andy Enfield. A home game against Virginia Tech for the Wolfpack then precedes a trip to Louisville and back-to-back home games against both North Carolina and Miami. NC State then finishes the month with road tilts at Virginia and Notre Dame on Feb. 24th and 28th before a home showdown with Duke on March 2nd in Raleigh. Seven of this team’s next eight opponents are firmly in the March Madness picture.

On The Side

  • Boogie Fland has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 26:7 in Florida’s last four games.
  • Iowa State’s average margin of victory is 26.8 points during its current four-game winning streak.
  • Kansas has an all-time record of 878-122 at Allen Fieldhouse. 
  • Miami (OH) may have its toughest test yet this season when it visits Buffalo tonight. The 22-0 Redhawks beat Bulls 105-102 in overtime when the two teams met on Jan. 17th in Ohio.
  • St. John’s Rick Pitino was today’s guest on INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOW. To watch the full interview, click HERE.

Daily Specials

  • Miami (OH) at Buffalo
  • Xavier at UConn
  • St. John’s at DePaul
  • NC State at SMU
  • Indiana at USC

Leftovers