Breakfast buffet: Louisville says goodbye to Freedom Hall

Pull up a chair and sit down at the breakfast buffet, a daily assortment of all the freshest newsworthy college hoops stories on the net. To make a submission, contact me via email or twitter.

• Venerable Freedom Hall, home to numerous Final Fours and more than five decades of Louisville basketball, will go out in style today as the Cardinals attempt to lock up an NCAA tournament berth with a victory over top-ranked Syracuse. If you're at all interested in the history of the venue, I highly recommend the Louisville Courier-Journal's coverage and especially the video tribute featuring interviews with numerous former Cardinals players and coaches.

• The NCAA tournament's first automatic bid belongs to Cornell. The two-time defending Ivy league champs locked up a third straight regular season title with a 95-76 win over Brown, ensuring they will return to the NCAA tournament, this time perhaps as a No. 11 or 12 seed rather than a No. 14.

• World Wide Wes, the prep hoops power broker known by many as the most powerful man in basketball, is close to formalizing an agreement with Creative Artists Agency to serve as an agent who will represent NBA and college basketball coaches. The major ramification of this I see is that college coaches represented by him will be more attractive hires because of his ability to steer elite recruits in their direction.

• There may not be a more compelling conference tournament final the next few days than the OVC matchup between Murray State and Morehead State on Saturday. Top-seeded Murray State rolled to a 17-1 conference record in the regular season, while second-seeded Morehead State delivered the Racers' lone loss last week and has played better basketball in the conference tournament so far.

• Here's a good way to make sure you don't get to play on senior night: Ask on twitter how the team is supposed to win with "this guy coachin us." Idaho senior Kashif Watson tried that strategy, and naturally was suspended by coach Don Verlin for conduct detrimental to the program. Watson's brilliant reaction? "Wow can't play my last game due to some real comments on twitter," he wrote.

• Sunday is senior day at Kentucky, but Wildcats fans are well aware they'll be saying goodbye to a handful of underclassmen. Naturally, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe haven't said they're leaving yet, but the first two are likely foregone conclusions. As for junior Patrick Patterson, he seems to be at least considering a return. Said Patterson, "Tyler Hansbrough did it and he came back his senior year and he won a national championship. Maybe that's something I could do."

• Could BYU fans be seeing the last of Jimmer Fredette the next few weeks? Doubtful since he's a Gerry McNamara clone with the same glaring defensive liabilities, but the BYU junior may test the waters to get an evaluation of where he stands. "If there is not something real concrete on the table, he will pull out and come back for his senior year," brother T.J. Fredette said. "So that is probably what is going to happen. But he will keep his options open, just in case."

• Gardner-Webb is in the market for a new basketball coach after the school cut ties with Rick Scruggs on Friday following a disappointing 8-21 season. Scruggs, who coached Gardner-Webb for 15 years, may be best remembered for upsetting Kentucky at Rupp Arena two seasons ago.