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
Villanova could be headed for the East Region
Why is that so important? The regional site for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in the East Region is the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia — the Wildcats’ secondary home court. Villanova is eligible to play in this region because it’s played a limited amount of home games at this venue during the regular season. Jay Wright’s squad won the Big East Tournament for the fifth time in its last eight attempts on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden against Creighton. The Wildcats finished the regular season at 26-7.
The talent discrepancy between Virginia Tech and Duke was staggering
That obviously doesn’t mean though, that the Blue Devils were the better team. The Hokies have four players in their starting lineup — Storm Murphy, Hunter Cattoor, Keve Aluma, and Justyn Mutts — who either started their career or initially committed to a mid-major program out of high school. Duke starts five potential first-round picks in Trevor Keels, Wendell Moore, A.J. Griffin, Paolo Banchero, and Mark Williams. None of that mattered on Saturday night as Virginia Tech topped the Blue Devils 82-67 in the ACC Tournament title game at the Barclays Center. This is the second straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the Hokies under Mike Young.
Year 3 for Buzz Williams has always been associated with a breakthrough
Texas A&M’s head coach is a combined 66-37 during his career in the third year that he’s taken over a program. Prior to his current post in College Station, Williams was previously the head coach at both Marquette and Virginia Tech. In his third season with the Golden Eagles, Williams led Marquette to the Sweet 16 of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. In his third year in Blacksburg, Williams led Virginia Tech to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his tenure with the Hokies. The Aggies will play Tennessee today in Tampa for the SEC Tournament title. Regardless of the result, Williams — whose team faced an eight-game losing streak in the middle of the regular season — should have Texas A&M back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Davidson feels undervalued nationally
There’s no Steph Curry, Jack Gibbs, or even Kellan Grady amongst these Wildcats, but that doesn’t mean that Davidson shouldn’t be talked about as one of the top non power conference teams in the country. Bob McKillop’s squad will take a 27-5 record into today’s Atlantic 10 Tournament title game against Richmond (1 PM ET, CBS), with 15 of its wins coming by double figures. Davidson is also an impressive 7-2 in games this season that have been decided by five points or less. It will be interesting to see if McKillop can win an NCAA Tournament game with this group, something he hasn’t been able to do since he went to the Elite Eight in 2008 with Curry.
LSU finally decided that enough was enough with Will Wade
An abrupt end to a rollercoaster tenure in Baton Rouge ended on Saturday, with the Tigers firing Wade just days before LSU was set to again play in the NCAA Tournament. Wade achieved great success on the court during his tenure with the Tigers — finishing fifth or higher in the SEC for five straight seasons — but his association with college basketball’s FBI scandal also put this program under a massive dark cloud. Wade was suspended for the 2019 NCAA Tournament, but then was reinstated just after prior to the school receiving its Notice of Allegations from the IARP this week. He was then terminated on Saturday when he returned from the SEC Tournament in Tampa. Finally, enough was enough.
