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The Breakfast Buffet — March Madness Edition

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

Miami got back to its roots
Jim Larranaga first put the Hurricanes on the national map about a decade ago by blending quality transfers with solid high school recruits. Miami then got away from that formula by recruiting higher profile prospects like Bruce Brown and Lonnie Walker. The Hurricanes have since returned to their roots. This program has advanced to the Sweet 16 three times under Larranaga — 2013, 2016, and 2022. The one common theme in all of those runs? At least two of Miami’s top four scorers in each of those three seasons were transfers. Three of the Hurricanes’ top four scorers this year — Kameron McGusty, Charlie Moore, and Jordan Miller — did not begin their college careers with the Hurricanes.

Providence is playing with house money
Big East regular season title? Check. Sweet 16 appearance for the first time since 1997? Check. Providence will take a 27-5 record into its Sweet 16 matchup with Kansas on Friday night in Chicago and is officially playing with a clear head. The Friars absolutely want to advance as far as they can in the NCAA Tournament, but it’s important to note than they’ve already exceeded expectations in a major way. Anything that Providence accomplishes moving forward will be gravy on top of one of the most unexpected yet successful seasons in program history.

The ACC has salvaged its season
The worst year in the history of ACC? Not anymore. While the ACC had a historically bad regular season compared to past years, its performance thus far in the NCAA Tournament deserves praise. Three teams from this conference — Duke, North Carolina, and Miami — are in the Sweet 16. That’s more than the Big Ten, Big East, Pac-12, and SEC.

Iowa State’s defense deserves more attention
Some might say that the Cyclones’ offense is offensive. In Ames, they’ll say that it’s good enough to get to a Sweet 16. Despite only averaging 56.5 points in its first two NCAA Tournament games, Iowa State has advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 2016 mostly in part to its ferocious defense. The Cyclones are only allowing an average of 51.5 points in their first two NCAA Tournament games and held their first two opponents — LSU and Wisconsin — to just 33.3 percent shooting from the floor and 14.6 percent shooting from three-point range. We’ll see if that type of defense translates in the Sweet 16 against Miami.

Sean Miller’s return should again make Xavier a force in the Big East
The Musketeers were 120-47 in the five years that Miller was the head coach of Xavier (2004-09), highlighted by a trip to the Elite Eight in 2008 and a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2009. That was when this program was in the Atlantic 10. The ceiling is now significantly higher in the Big East. The Musketeers have not played in the NCAA Tournament since 2018, when they were a No. 1 seed under Chris Mack. That should change as early as next season. Expect Miller to have this program at the top of the Big East in short order along with Villanova, UConn, and Providence.

Leftovers