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The Breakfast Buffet: Syracuse’s game against Tennessee is its biggest yet under Adrian Autry, Cincinnati’s critical week, Villanova

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

Syracuse’s game on Tuesday against Tennessee is its biggest yet under Adrian Autry
That is not hyperbole. The Orange have not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2021 and haven’t come close to reaching the bracket under Autry, but they’ve clearly assembled their best roster in years. The issue is, they don’t have anything to show for it. Syracuse took Houston to the wire last Monday in Las Vegas, but ultimately fell to the Cougars and then lost back-to-back games by double digits to Kansas and Iowa State. Winning at home on Tuesday against the Vols in the ACC/SEC Challenge is the only way the Orange are going to be able to build any type of a resume for Selection Sunday given the state of the ACC. While the conference is improved, a large percentage of teams that the Orange will face during conference play will not be projected to play in March Madness.

Cincinnati has a critical week
The Bearcats are officially straddling a fence: They’re either going to make a push towards being an NCAA Tournament team for the first time under Wes Miller or they’re going to continue to tread water in the middle to bottom of the Big 12 standings. Cincinnati lost a buy game on Friday against Eastern Michigan and will take a 5-2 record into tonight’s tilt against Tarleton State before traveling to the Cintas Center on Friday to take on an improving Xavier team in the Crosstown Shootout. This program hasn’t been to March Madness since 2019, which was Mick Cronin’s final season before he left to take the UCLA job

Villanova is about to step into the spotlight
Aside from a hard fought defeat against BYU on opening night in Las Vegas, the Wildcats haven’t been in the spotlight much under Kevin Willard in the first month of the season. That’s about to change in the next few weeks. Villanova will face Big 5 rival Temple tonight at Finneran Pavilion and then travel to Michigan on Dec. 9th. A non-conference game against Pitt on The Main Line follows prior to a showdown with Wisconsin in Milwaukee on Dec. 19th. At 5-1 overall, .the Wildcats haven’t truly helped or hurt themselves yet, but their performance over the next three weeks will determine what type of a chance they’ll have to earn an at-large berth to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Things are about to get real.  

On The Side

  • Andy Enfield could be on the verge of taking his third program to the NCAA Tournament. SMU is quietly off to an 8-0 start after Saturday’s win at Mississippi State and looks like a bonafide sleeper in the ACC. Remember: Enfield took Florida Gulf Coast to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and went to more NCAA Tournaments than any head coach in the history of USC’s basketball program. 
  • Gonzaga transfer Michael Ajayi (15.9 points, 11.9 rebounds) has tallied a double-double in six of Butler’s first seven games. Remember the name.
  • Tad Boyle was right about Isaiah Johnson (14.9 points). Colorado’s prized freshman is currently leading the Buffaloes in scoring and is shooting a whopping 57.1 percent from three-point range. Johnson has had a major hand in this team’s 7-0 start.
  • LSU is 7-0 and playing better basketball than it has in years. The Tigers will travel to Boston College on Wednesday in the ACC/SEC Challenge and then have back-to-back neutral site games against Texas Tech and SMU. This is a big two-week stretch for Matt McMahon’s squad.
  • Tony Skinn has George Mason at 8-0 and the Patriots best’ player and one of the best players in the Atlantic 10 — Brayden O’Connor (9.1 points in 2024-25) — has yet to play this season due to injury. Skinn has done as good of a coaching job as any mid-major coach in the sport over the past few seasons.

Daily Specials

  • Temple at Villanova
  • Tarleton State at Cincinnati
  • Bowling Green at Kansas State

Leftovers