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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

Walter Clayton Jr. had a performance to remember against Auburn
Todd Golden has repeatedly said this season that Clayton was the best guard in college basketball. On Saturday, the 6-3 guard backed up his coach’s words on the game’s biggest stage. Clayton scored 34 points and was 11-18 from the field and 5-8 from three-point range in the Gators’ 79-73 win over the Tigers. The 34-point performance is the most points scored by a player in a national semifinal since Danny Ferry scored 34 points for Duke against Seton Hall in 1989. Florida will play Houston on Monday night for a national title.

A salute to Cooper Flagg
The National Player of the Year played like the National Player of the Year on Saturday night in the Final Four and even though he didn’t make the game-winning shot on the game’s critical possession, that doesn’t take away from the type of season that he had. The 6-9 Flagg finished with 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three blocks in Duke’s gut wrenching loss to Houston on Saturday, further reiterating his all-around dominance. He’ll now move forward into the next chapter of his basketball career, which will undoubtedly feature being selected as the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. A salute to this young man, who was a tremendous asset to college basketball during the 2024-25 season.

Duke’s loss to Houston will last a lifetime
This won’t be Jon Scheyer’s final trip to the Final Four as a head coach, but unfortunately he’s going to remember Saturday’s game against Houston for all the wrong reasons. The Blue Devils had a nine-point lead with three minutes to play before being outscored 15-3 down the stretch en route to a 70-67 win for the Cougars. There was a Murphy’s Law type feel to the final minutes for Duke, who let a major opportunity to play for a national title slip through its finger tips. There’s no way of ever knowing if this program will ever again have such a substantial lead late in a national semifinal with a generational talent like Flagg on its roster.

On The Side

  • Kelvin Sampson was an assistant at Washington State when Todd Golden was born in 1985. On Monday night, the two will go head-to-head for the national title. America!
  • Johni Broome was a combined 14-33 from the field in two games this season against Florida. The 6-10 All-American scored his final made field goal on Saturday against the Gators with 15:12 remaining in the game.
  • Tahaad Pettiford averaged 17.3 points in Auburn’s first four NCAA Tournament games. He only scored seven in Saturday night’s loss to Florida.
  • Houston’s LJ Cryer is 19/42 (45.2 percent) from three-point range in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
  • Duke has lost in the national semifinals in its last two trips to the Final Four.

Leftovers