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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

Houston needs to bring Duke into the mud
A game of high possessions will favor the Blue Devils and their deep assortment of first-round picks. A game in the mud however, will allow the Cougars to impose their will. Houston has the best culture in college basketball and has cemented itself as the toughest team in the sport, but the more volume there is for Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Tyrese Proctor to manufacture offense, the harder it’s going to be for Houston. This is a fascinating contrast of toughness against talent.

Florida needs its frontcourt depth to overwhelm Johni Broome
The Tigers’ All-American big man was just 8-19 from the field when the Gators won at Neville Arena on Feb. 8th and Florida needs to implement a similar formula tonight if it’s going to advance. The Gators have four big men — Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Micah Handlogten, and Reuben Chinyelu — to defend the 6-10 Broome. That’s a combined 20 fouls that can be used to slow this guy down. Keep a close on eye on how Florida constantly uses fresh defenders against Broome in the pivot.

All four head coaches in the 2025 Final Four have never been to the national title game
The four men who will man the sidelines tonight in San Antonio — Bruce Pearl, Todd Golden, Kelvin Sampson, and Jon Scheyer — will compete for a chance to go where no one from this group has ever gone: Monday’s national title game. Golden and Scheyer are just starting their coaching careers and while both Pearl and Sampson have previously coached in the Final Four, neither has advanced to the title game. A new dawn for two of these four men will occur on Saturday.

On The Side

  • All five of Auburn’s staters — Dylan Cardwell, Johni Brooke, Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones, and Miles Kelly — are in either their fourth or fifth seasons of college basketball.
  • Duke is 43/91 (47.3 percent) from three-point range in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
  • Florida’s last appearance in the Final Four was 11 years ago today — April 5, 2014. That’s 4,018 days ago.
  • Two players who started for Iowa last season — Josh Dix (14.4 points) and Owen Freeman (16.7 points, 6.7 rebounds — have committed to Creighton as transfers.
  • Rick Pitino told reporters on Friday that St. John’s and Louisville are in discussions regarding a home-and-home series that would begin next season at MSG with a return game at the KFC Yum Center during the 2026-27 season.

Leftovers