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The Breakfast Buffet: Iowa/Indiana, Kentucky, player retention again a major key

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

Indiana has to turn Iowa into a half court team
That’s easier said than done, but it’s also the only way that the Hoosiers are going to have a chance tonight in Iowa City. The interesting thing about the Hawkeyes when you study them isn’t just how potent they are offensively, it’s how quickly they get into their offense. Several times in last Sunday’s win over Northwestern, Iowa (12-2) was able to get quality looks at the basket within the first five to six seconds of a possession. That forces the opponent to play faster. Fran McCaffery’s squad enters tonight’s game averaging 92.2 points while Indiana (8-6) averages 72.6 points. Archie Miller has to do everything in his power to drag this game into the mud.

It’s only going to get harder moving forward for Kentucky 
The Wildcats fell to 4-9 following Wednesday night’s one-point loss at Georgia and there’s no sight of a reprieve. Kentucky will host LSU on Saturday then travel to Alabama and return home to face Texas at Rupp Arena as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Wildcats will then visit Missouri and host Tennessee. John Calipari is five games under .500 for the first time since the 1988-89 season, which was his first year at UMass. That season was also the only losing season in Calipari’s Hall-of-Fame Career. 

Player retention remains the key to success in college basketball
Much is always made each season about which newcomers will have the biggest impact, but this year again reiterates that returning personnel is more important than incoming personnel. 45 of the 50 starters on the 10 teams ranked in the Top 10 of this week’s AP Top 25 were all a part of their current programs last season. That’s 90 percent. The five who weren’t include Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs, Texas’ Greg Brown, Tennessee’s Keon Johnson, and Michigan’s Mike Smith and Hunter Dickinson. 

On The Side

  • The dark horse candidate for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year takes the floor tonight at FedExForum and he doesn’t play for Memphis. Who is it? Wichita State’s Tyson Etienne. The 6-2 guard is averaging 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds this season for the 8-3 Shockers, who have played very good basketball under interim coach Isaac Brown.
  • Georgia Tech is now 7-1 since Josh Pastner opted to return to full-contact drills in practice, with its only loss coming on the road at Florida State. The Yellow Jackets are solidifying themselves as a middle of the pack team in the ACC and will next play back-to-back games on the road at Virginia and Duke. 
  • Utah State’s Neemias Queta has posted four straight double-doubles and blocked a total of 17 shots in his last five games. The Aggies go for their 12th straight win tonight at home against Colorado State.
  • Alabama’s breakthrough season could wind up helping Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are the last team to beat the Crimson Tide and that could come in handy if Rick Stansbury’s team doesn’t win the Conference-USA Tournament in March and needs an at-large bid to reach the NCAA Tournament. Western Kentucky is currently 11-4 overall, but has lost two league games in the past couple of weeks on the back end of two separate series’ with both Charlotte and Louisiana Tech.
  • In 24 hours, USC lost at Oregon State and Colorado dropped a close game at Washington. The bottom of the Pac-12 is eating the top. This isn’t good for a league that aspires to have quality representation in the NCAA Tournament. 

Daily Specials

  • USC at Stanford
  • Rutgers at Penn State
  • UCLA at Cal
  • Indiana at Iowa
  • Colorado State at Utah State

Leftovers: