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The Breakfast Buffet: Michigan quietly has a big week, Indiana, Iowa State/Mississippi State

Who’s hungry for college basketball?

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

Michigan quietly has a big week
The Wolverines pounded Oakland by 43 on opening night, but their next two opponents will likely offer significantly more resistance. Michigan will face Wake Forest on Tuesday in Detroit and then travel to Fort Worth to take on TCU on Friday. While neither of these two opponents are projected to finish near the top of their respective conferences, it’s still a great opportunity for Michigan to get a gauge on itself against good competition in both a road and neutral site environment.

Indiana pounded Marquette in Chicago
Many people — including myself — wondered how the Golden Eagles would respond in their first legitimate game without Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, and David Joplin. We all got our answer. Marquette looked out of sorts and overmatched against the Hoosiers on Sunday at the United Center as Indiana cruised to a 100-77 win. Much of the credit has to go to Darian DeVries’ squad, who boasts two All-Big Ten players in Tucker DeVries (27 points, five assists) and Lamar Wilkerson (23 points, eight assists). The Hoosiers are 2-0 and will play five straight games in Bloomington before beginning Big Ten play at Minnesota on Dec. 3rd.

Iowa State/Mississippi State
Two of the most consistent defensive programs in the sport face off in a neutral site game at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. Keep a close eye on the matchup between Cyclones point guard Tamin Lipsey (14.0 points, 5.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds) and Bulldogs star Josh Hubbard (27.0 points, 8.0 assists). This is the first power conference game of the season for both of these teams, who have each played in the last three NCAA Tournaments. This is the game of the day of college basketball.

On The Side

  • Nate Oats knows that in order for Alabama to be a truly elite team this season it has to get better defensively. “We need to do a better job of not fouling,” Oats told College Hoops Today over the weekend. “We can’t put a team on the line 40 times like we did against St. John’s on Saturday.” The Crimson Tide will next host Purdue on Thursday night in Tuscaloosa. 
  • Jeremy Fears has 19 assists and only four turnovers in Michigan State’s first two games. 
  • Gonzaga had nine players log double figure minutes in Saturday’s blowout win over Oklahoma. The Bulldogs look deeper than they were last season.
  • Xavier has a very dangerous buy game tonight against Santa Clara at the Cintas Center. The Broncos have consistently been one of the top programs in the WCC under Herb Sendek while the Musketeers are in rebuild mode in Year One under Richard Pitino. Xavier’s first two wins came by a combined nine points against Marist and Le Moyne. 
  • I absolutely LOVED the cadence of the college basketball schedule this past weekend. The big games felt like big games and a big reason why is because they weren’t competing with other big games. This is what we NEED to do moving forward to continue to amplify our great sport.

Daily Specials

  • Santa Clara at Xavier
  • Iowa State/Mississippi State

Leftovers