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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

America is running out of adjectives for St. Peter’s
What else are we supposed to say? The Peacocks have now officially become the least likely participant to reach the Elite Eight in the history of the NCAA Tournament. St. Peter’s will be the first 15 seed to ever play in a regional final on Sunday against North Carolina in Philadelphia. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.

The ACC is having the last laugh
Remember when the world thought that this league was a having a down year? To quote Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco, “Forget about it”! Three teams from the ACC — Duke, North Carolina, and Miami — are among the final eight remaining in the bracket. The ACC is 11-2 in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Remy Martin has regained his Arizona State form
Many people criticized Martin during the regular season, but there’s absolutely no way that Kansas would be in the Elite Eight without him. The 6-foot guard had 23 points and seven rebounds in Thursday night’s Sweet 16 win over Providence and is averaging 19.3 points and five rebounds in the NCAA Tournament. Those are comparable to the numbers that Martin averaged in his final two years at Arizona State. The Jayhawks will play for a chance to take Bill Self to his fourth Final Four on Sunday against Miami.

Eric Musselman is not an “extra” in today’s coaching matchup
The narrative today in San Francisco (8:49 PM, TBS) is going to be about whether or not Mike Krzyzewski can lead Duke to the Final Four in his final season as head coach. Don’t dismiss what Musselman has done leading up to this point. After coaching two NBA franchises — the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings — Musselman entered college basketball as an assistant coach at both Arizona State and LSU. No job was beneath him despite his professional background. In the last four NCAA Tournaments, Musselman has led Nevada to one Sweet 16 and Arkansas to back-to-back Elite Eights. He — just like Krzyzewski — is coaching for a “full circle” moment tonight. The Razorbacks haven’t been to the Final Four since 1995.

Villanova/Houston is a battle of cultures
And they’re the top two cultures in all of college basketball. The term “culture” is often thrown around with regularity in sports, but these two programs epitomize it more than most. There’s no 50-50 plays when Villanova and Houston play an opponent — they’re 90/10 in favor of one of those two teams. That won’t be the case today as only one of these teams will advance to the Final Four in New Orleans. Tip off for this game is at 6:09 PM ET on TBS.

Leftovers