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The Breakfast Buffet: Tennessee/Auburn, Ed Cooley returns to Providence, Duke visits Wake Forest

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

Tennessee/Auburn
The game of the day in college basketball is at Neville Arena and it features two teams that are firmly in the mix for number one seeds in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers have only lost one game this season — at Duke in the ACC/SEC Challenge — while the Vols’ two defeats both came on the road in SEC play. Tennessee’s veteran point guard Zakai Zeigler (12.2 points, 7.6 assists) has to be near his apex if Rick Barnes’ team is going to have a chance to steal a win in one of college basketball’s most raucous venues. Auburn is 8-7 against Tennessee since Bruce Pearl was hired in 2014.

Ed Cooley returns to Providence
What a difference a year makes. 12 months ago, Cooley led Georgetown into Amica Mutual Pavilion with an 8-11 record and a team that would only win a total of nine games in his first season with the Hoyas. Today, he returns to his home city with a team that’s 13-6 and clearly trending upward in the Big East. Providence meanwhile, is 9-10 overall and 3-5 in Big East play. Expect another hostile return for Cooley, who was the Friars’ head coach from 2011-2023 before he opted to take his current post at Georgetown.

Duke visits Wake Forest
Is this the hardest remaining game on the Blue Devils’ regular season schedule? Quite possibly. Duke still has to play North Carolina in Chapel Hill on March 8th, but the Tar Heels are currently hovering around the bubble and may be out of at-large contention by the final Saturday of the regular season. Wake Forest meanwhile, has perimeter firepower with Hunter Sallis (19.2 points, 4.5 rebounds) and Cam Hildreth (14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds) along with an interior tandem of Efton Reid (7.9 points, 5.7 rebounds) and Tre’Von Spillers (10.4 points, 8.8 rebounds) that’s simply more formidable than what the Blue Devils will have to deal with when they close the regular season at the Dean Smith Center. The Demon Deacons are 15-4, have won six straight games, and own an early season victory over Michigan, but this is the type of game that this program needs to win if it’s going to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Steve Forbes.

On The Side

  • Alabama is averaging 93.0 points in SEC play entering tonight’s game against LSU in Tuscaloosa.
  • Kansas freshman big man Flory Bidunga is going to have to hold his own on the glass today when the Jayhawks host Houston at Allen Fieldhouse. The 6-10 Bidunga tallied a double-double — 10 points and 10 rebounds — in Wednesday’s win at TCU and has grabbed a combined 19 rebounds in his last two games.
  • St. John’s is averaging just 3.8 made three-point shots per game during Big East play and is still tied with Marquette for first place in the conference standings.
  • Michigan State has a 4-17 all-time record at MSG entering today’s game against Rutgers at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Tip off is at 1:30 PM ET on CBS.
  • Two of Arizona State’s next three games — Iowa State (today) and Arizona (Feb. 1st) — will be Quad 1 opportunities at home. The next seven days are massive for Bobby Hurley’s squad.

Daily Specials

  • Kentucky at Vanderbilt
  • Duke at Wake Forest
  • Houston at Kansas
  • UConn at Xavier
  • Tennessee at Auburn

Leftovers