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The Breakfast Buffet: March Madness Edition

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

Tristen Newton’s ball security is vastly improved
There were times last season that Newton felt like a walking turnover. Not anymore. Newton’s all-around improvement deserves more attention heading into this weekend’s Final Four, especially when you consider how effective he’s gotten at running a team. In four NCAA Tournament games, the 6-5 Newton has operated with the focus of a surgeon, tallying 27 assists to just seven turnovers. A year ago, Newton had 31 assists and 17 turnovers in six games during March Madness. That’s a massive improvement.

Phoenix has been very good to UConn during the NCAA Tournament
It was 25 years ago in this city when Jim Calhoun led this program to its first ever appearance in a Final Four as the Huskies won a close game against Gonzaga in the Elite Eight of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Five years later in 2004, UConn again advanced to the Final Four through Phoenix, beating Alabama in the West Regional final. Then in 2009, Calhoun reached his third Final Four when he knocked off Missouri in Glendale in the Elite Eight. There’s a lot of good vibes for the Huskies in the greater Phoenix area.

Eric Musselman has a massive rebuild ahead at USC
“The Importer” quickly flipped Nevada’s program and took Arkansas to back-to-back Elite Eights, but he’s in for arguably his greatest challenge as a college head coach with the Trojans. Musselman arrives in Southern California as USC gets set to begin its first season in the Big Ten following the end of the Pac-12. The Trojans’ top four scorers from last season — Boogie Ellis, Isaiah Collier, Kobe Johnson, and DJ Rodman — will all not return next season as Ellis and Rodman are out of eligibility and Johnson announced his commitment to UCLA as a transfer on Thursday. Collier is projected to be a first-round pick in June’s NBA Draft. Musselman has major work ahead in the transfer portal as he aims to put together as competitive team for the 2024-25 season.

On The Side

  • Purdue is 9-3 this season in games decided by six points or fewer.
  • UConn gave up an average of 76.3 points in its three losses this season. With Donovan Clingan in the lineup, the Huskies are giving up an average of 60.5 points. The 7-3 Clingan missed five games in the middle of the season with a foot injury.
  • NC State’s DJ Horne has made 103 three-point shots this season. He didn’t make more than 73 shots from long distance during the previous four years of his college career.
  • Nate Oats is 10-6 in the NCAA Tournament as a head coach.
  • Shaheen Holloway taught his team a very important lesson during the Postseason NIT: You can’t control what happens to you in life — you can control how you respond. I’ll say it for the last time: Seton Hall — who won the Postseason NIT — should have been in the NCAA Tournament over Virginia.

Leftovers