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The Breakfast Buffet: St. John’s/UConn, Donovan Dent, the ACC hit it out of the park with its coaching hires last spring

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

Friday’s showdown between St. John’s and UConn is the most anticipated regular season game of 2025-26
That is not hyperbole. I’m fully aware that Duke and North Carolina play on Saturday night in Chapel Hill and there have been other great games in college basketball this season all across the country, but none of those games feature two head coaches that have both won multiple national titles — Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley — going head-to-head at MSG. Another thing? These two programs simply don’t like each other, which adds to the sizzle. The Red Storm will enter Friday’s game on an eight-game winning streak while the Huskies have won 18 games in a row. Both Pitino and Hurley are the last two head coaches to earn Naismith Coach of the Year honors.

Donovan Dent has quietly turned a corner for UCLA
Dent didn’t have the start that he envisioned in Westwood after transferring from New Mexico, but to his credit, he’s tightened things up and played his best basketball over the past few weeks. During the Bruins’ last five games — which started with a win over Purdue on Jan. 20th — the 6-2 point guard is averaging 17.8 points and 8.8 assists with an impressive assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.4:1. Those are All-American caliber numbers. He’s also had to log significantly more minutes with Skyy Clark (13.5 points) out of UCLA’s lineup since Jan. 3rd due to a hamstring injury. The Bruins are currently 16-7 and will next host Washington on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The ACC knocked out of the park with its coaching hires last spring
This league deserves credit for the way that it’s improved this season and a major reason why is because of the people who are pulling the strings on the sidelines. Three first-year ACC head coaches — Ryan Odom (Virginia), Will Wade (NC State), and Jai Lucas (Miami) — have their teams in prime position to play in the NCAA Tournament and all three currently have teams that are in the top six of the league standings. The ACC only had four teams — Duke, Louisville, Clemson, and North Carolina — participate in March Madness last season, but that number could very well double in a couple of weeks.

On The Side

  • Arizona’s Tobe Awaka has grabbed 34 rebounds in his last 63 minutes.
  • Rick Barnes’ decision to expand JP Estrella’s role is paying major dividends for Tennessee. Since inserting the 6-11 sophomore into the Vols’ starting lineup, Tennessee has won four straight, with Estrella averaging an impressive 10.8 points and 6.3 rebounds during that span.
  • NC State’s Quadir Copeland had 16 assists and zero turnovers in Tuesday night’s win at SMU and has tallied 44 assists in his last four games. Who is this guy?!
  • One thing not getting enough attention with Saint Louis’ 22-1 start? The Billikens are a fluke loss against Stanford away from being undefeated and discussed in the same light as Wichita State was in 2013-14 when it entered the NCAA Tournament at 34-0.
  • Seven of Miami’s (OH) 23 wins this season have been by five points or fewer or in overtime.

Daily Specials

  • Penn State at Michigan
  • West Virginia at Cincinnati
  • Ohio State at Maryland

Leftovers