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The Breakfast Buffet: Arizona State/Nevada, Xavier, JaKobe Coles

Here’s today’s installment of “The Breakfast Buffet”, the morning column 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

Arizona State/Nevada
Bobby Hurley and Steve Alford both won national titles as players at Duke and Indiana respectively and tonight they’ll go head-to-head as coaches in a compelling First Four matchup in Dayton (9:10 PM ET, truTV). The winner of this game will move on to play TCU on Friday in Denver. One particular storyline to monitor in this game? Two of the Sun Devils’ starters — Desmond Cambridge (13.7 points) and Warren Washington (9.2 points, 6.9 rebounds) — played last season at Nevada before transferring.

Xavier feels like the forgotten team in the Midwest Region
Maybe it’s because the Musketeers lost last Saturday in the Big East Tournament title game to Marquette. Maybe it’s because Houston and Texas are the top two seeds in this region and are both eyeing a trip to the Final Four in their home state. Whatever it is, you don’t hear much chatter about Xavier this week after the bracket for the NCAA Tournament was unveiled on Sunday. The Musketeers will play Atlantic Sun champion Kennesaw State on Friday in the first round and need to get All-American guard Souley Boum back on track. Boum had just one point and was 0-9 from the field in his last game against Marquette.

JaKobe Coles is now a critical piece for TCU
Eddie Lampkin’s decision to enter the transfer portal right before the start of the NCAA Tournament now puts Coles into a more pronounced role for the Horned Frogs up front. Expect him to deliver. One of college basketball’s most underrated sixth men, the 6-7 forward has a great feel and strong basketball IQ. He’ll play major minutes next to Emanuel Miller following Lampkin’s departure. Coles averaged eight points and four rebounds in last week’s Big 12 Tournament.

On The Side

  • Nevada is the fifth program that Steve Alford has taken to the NCAA Tournament. He was previously the head coach at UCLA, New Mexico, Iowa, and Missouri State.
  • Tennessee has 45 assists and 39 turnovers in the three games that it’s played since losing Zakai Zeigler to a season-ending knee injury.
  • VCU has won just one NCAA Tournament game since Shaka Smart left in 2015 — against Oregon State in 2016. The Rams will play Saint Mary’s on Friday in Albany.
  • Two of Colgate’s last three NCAA Tournament losses under Matt Langel — Tennessee in 2019 and Wisconsin in 2022 — came by just seven points.
  • Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament seed (six) is its lowest seed since 2014. The Wildcats lost to UConn that season in the national title game.

Leftovers