College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Kentucky/Tennessee, North Carolina, Kadary Richmond

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/Tennessee
The Wildcats are averaging 77.7 points on the road in SEC play. The Vols are allowing an average of 54.7 points at home in SEC play. Something has to give tonight in Knoxville. Tennessee should be extra feisty this evening after taking Auburn to the wire on Saturday at Neville Arena before coming up just short. It will be interesting to see how Kentucky adjusts to the Vols’ ruthless physicality, especially with Lamont Butler (13.2 points, 4.8 assists) out for the game due to a shoulder injury. Mark Pope has played an incredibly difficult schedule in his first year as head coach of his alma mater, but the Wildcats’ next 40 minutes may be the most difficult that they’ve played yet this season.

A make-or-break stretch awaits North Carolina
That is not hyperbole. The Tar Heels are 13-8 after Saturday’s overtime win over Boston College and their next four games will likely determine whether or not they’ll be able to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina will play back-to-back road games this week at Pitt (tonight) and Duke (Saturday) before returning home to host the Panthers on Feb. 8th. A trip to Clemson will then follow two days later. Anything less than a split will severely inhibit this team’s ability to reach March Madness without winning the ACC Tournament.

Kadary Richmond is starting to look like Kadary Richmond
And that could be bad news for the rest of the Big East. The 6-6 point guard is finally hitting his stride for St. John’s after spending the past few years at Seton Hall. In Richmond’s last three games, he’s averaging 13.7 points, 6.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.7 steals. Not many players in the sport fill the box score better. His assist-to-turnover ratio during that span? An impressive 19:4. The Red Storm have won six straight games entering tonight’s tilt in Washington D.C. against Georgetown.

On The Side

  • 10 of Alabama’s final 11 regular season opponents are ranked in the Top 44 of this week’s ROTHSTEIN 45.
  • Cincinnati is averaging just 51.7 points in eight Big 12 games. The Bearcats are just 2-6 in league play entering tonight’s game against Utah in Salt Lake City. 
  • Wisconsin is a combined 32-for-67 (47.8 percent) from three-point range in its last two games. 
  • McNeese is 46-9 in the last two seasons under Will Wade.
  • Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland is this week’s guest on the College Hoops Today Podcast.

Daily Specials

  • St. John’s at Georgetown
  • Kentucky at Tennessee
  • Wake Forest at Louisville
  • UCF at Kansas
  • Oklahoma at Texas A&M

Leftovers