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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.

Things To Sample

John Calipari deserves credit for the coaching job he’s done this season at Arkansas
After starting 0-5 in SEC play, the Razorbacks lost their five-star freshman — Boogie Fland (14.2 points, 5.4 assists) — for two months and their leading scorer — Adou Thiero (15.6 points, 6.0 assists) — for another month. Despite all that adversity, Arkansas finds itself in the Sweet 16 after Saturday’s upset win over St. John’s in Providence. That’s a credit to Calipari, who has quietly done one of the best coaching jobs of his Hall-of-Fame career. The Razorbacks will next play Texas Tech next week in the Sweet 16 in San Francisco.

UConn/Florida
The team that’s dominated the past two NCAA Tournaments squares off with the team that’s currently dominating college basketball. The Huskies don’t have what they had the past two seasons under Dan Hurley when they won back-to-back national titles and 12 NCAA Tournament games by an average of 21.7 points, but they still have enough to be one of 24 teams left playing in March Madness. The Gators meanwhile are 31-4 and have won their last five games by an average of 19.0 points. It will be interesting to see if things are close in the second half how Florida responds to the pressure of being a top seed in a tight game in the NCAA Tournament. Tip off is at 12:10 PM ET on CBS.

Donovan Dent aims to play Cinderella
Not familiar with Dent’s game? Do yourself a favor and change that tonight. New Mexico’s star guard and the Mountain West Player of the Year will lead the Lobos against Michigan State this evening at Rocket Arena in Cleveland as this program looks to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1974. The 6-2 Dent had 21 points and six assists in Friday night’s win over Marquette, but also had eight turnovers. He’ll need to be much sharper tonight if New Mexico is going to have a chance to pull an upset. I’ll be on the sidelines for this tilt while Spero Dedes and Jim Spanarkel have the call. Tip off is at 8:40 PM ET on TNT.

On The Side

  • Auburn has advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. That was also the year that this program advanced to its first and only Final Four under Bruce Pearl.
  • Alabama will advance to its third consecutive Sweet 16 for the first time in program history if it beats Saint Mary’s tonight in Cleveland.
  • Maryland freshman Derik Queen is averaging 18.7 points and 11.2 rebounds in his last 11 games entering today’s Round of 32 matchup with Colorado State in Seattle.
  • Purdue is 7-2 in the NCAA Tournament over the past three seasons with Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer as its starting backcourt.
  • Chaz Lanier is averaging 24.5 points in Tennessee’s first two NCAA Tournament games.

Leftovers