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The Breakfast Buffet: Kentucky/Louisville, the Big East’s depth, Duke earns a signature win

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

Kentucky/Louisville
One of the great rivalries in college basketball takes place tonight at the KFC Yum Center. It isn’t expected to be competitive, but if it is, it would do wonders for Kenny Payne. After a 4-28 campaign a year ago in his first season as a head coach, Payne has struggled to display tangible proof that the Cardinals are inching closer to national relevance under his stewardship. Louisville enters tonight’s game with Kentucky at 5-6 and has already lost a pair of buy games this season to Chattanooga and Arkansas State. A competitive performance against the Wildcats — who are now ranked 10th in the ROTHSTEIN 45 after Saturday’s win over North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic — would do wonders for Payne and this program. It won’t be easy. Kentucky enters tonight’s game with six different players averaging in double figures and that doesn’t include five-star freshman Justin Edwards (9.6 points), who’s universally viewed as the best long-term prospect on the Wildcats’ roster.

The Big East’s depth is already on full display
Just when you think you find out the answers in college basketball, somebody else changes the questions. Big East play has only been active for two days and we’ve already seen Providence and Seton Hall — two teams that were picked seventh and ninth respectively in the league’s preseason poll — beat Marquette and UConn by double figures on back-to-back days. Villanova — who was picked fourth in the conference’s preseason poll — also won at Creighton. The Big East didn’t necessarily perform at the level that many anticipated during the non-conference portion of the schedule, but in two days we’ve seen that the conference is going to be awfully tough from top to bottom. The wins by both Providence and Seton Hall this week will only help this league get more teams into the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.

Duke earns a signature win over Baylor
This victory will travel for the Blue Devils all the way to Selection Sunday. Prior to Wednesday, Duke’s best non-conference win was a neutral site victory over Michigan State in the Champions Classic. The win over Baylor — who should be one of the top teams in the Big 12 — will only enhance this team’s resume. It was also a standout performance for the Blue Devils’ perimeter of Jeremy Roach, Jared McCain, and Caleb Foster, who combined for 51 of their 78 points in an eight-point victory.

On The Side

  • Louisville’s Skyy Clark initially committed to Kentucky in high school before decommitting and opting to start his college career at Illinois. Clark then transferred to the Cardinals during the middle of last season. Tonight’s game at the KFC Yum Center is his first head-to-head meeting with the Wildcats.
  • Purdue will take a 33-game regular season non-conference winning streak into tonight’s game against Jacksonville at Mackey Arena. The Boilers haven’t lost a regular season non-conference game since Dec. 8th, 2020 against Miami. That’s 1,108 days ago!
  • David Jones has scored 20 or more points in seven of Memphis’ first 11 games. He only scored 20 or more points three times last season when he was at St. John’s.
  • Four of St. Joe’s top five scorers — Erik Reynolds, Xzayvier Brown, Lynn Green III, and Cameron Brown — are shooting 40.8 percent from three-point range or better entering tonight’s game at Charleston.
  • UCLA has 124 assists to 120 turnovers as a team.

Daily Specials

  • Nevada/Temple (Diamond Head Classic)
  • Kentucky at Louisville
  • St. Joe’s at Charleston
  • Stanford at San Diego State
  • Boise State/Washington State (Spokane)

Leftovers