College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Kansas/Iona, LSU’s Defense, Mike Pegues

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

Kansas/Iona
The consolation game of the ESPN Invitational features a battle of wits between two of the sport’s top tacticians. Bill Self and Rick Pitino are both Hall-of-Famers and are both trying to get their teams in order after losses on Friday to Dayton and Belmont respectively. Kansas obviously has superior talent in this game, but Iona’s win over Alabama on Thursday and the Jayhawks’ loss to Dayton a day later proves that anything can happen on a neutral court. If the Gaels were to earn a victory today, it would give them another marquee win on their resume that would carry significant weight all the way to Selection Sunday.

LSU’s defense is all sorts of relentless
Will Wade has had more talented teams during his tenure in Baton Rouge, but none of them have defended like this squad. Through seven games, LSU (7-0) is giving up an average of just 54.1 points. In the past two days against Wake Forest and Penn State — the only two power conference opponents so far on the Tigers’ schedule — LSU held the Demon Deacons and Nittany Lions to just 36.8 percent shooting from the field and 28.5 percent from three-point range. These types of numbers are unheard for the Tigers under Wade. Six of this team’s eight rotation players — Alex Fudge, Mwani Wilkinson, Brandon Murray, Tari Eason, Darius Days, and Efton Reid — stand between 6-5 and 7-foot. This team is going to be an absolute nuisance to play against in the SEC.

Mike Pegues deserves credit for the job he did at Louisville
Chris Mack’s longtime assistant coach stepped in admirably over the past few weeks while Mack was serving a six-game suspension. Pegues — who served as interim head coach — proved that he could run a program and lead a team as the Cardinals finished 5-1 under his stewardship, which was highlighted by a pair of wins over Mississippi State and Maryland this past week in the Bahamas. Mack will return from suspension this week when Louisville heads to East Lansing to play Michigan State in in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

On The Side

  • UCLA is now 18-3 in games over the past two seasons in games where Jules Bernard scores in double figures. Can you say X-Factor?
  • Emoni Bates is averaging just 8.7 points while shooting 9-31 from the field and 3-13 from three-point range during Memphis’ last three games. The 6-9 freshman also has just two assists to eight turnovers during that same span.
  • Maryland’s schedule is about to intensify. The Terps will host Virginia Tech (ACC/Big Ten Challenge) and Northwestern this week in College Park and then play an improved Florida team on Dec. 12th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Mark Turgeon’s team is currently 5-2 overall.
  • Utah transfer Alfonso Plummer is quietly on a massive tear for Illinois. The 6-1 lefty is averaging 25.5 points and is a whopping 13-20 from three-point range over his last two games. Brad Underwood said during the preseason that Plummer is the best shooter that he’s ever coached and he coached Phil Forte during the one season that he was at Oklahoma State.
  • The best big man in college basketball that nobody’s really talking about is Fresno State’s Orlando Robinson. The 7-footer has soft hands, can score around the basket, and also rebounds his position. Robinson is currently averaging 19.6 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks. The 5-0 Bulldogs visit Cal tonight.

Daily Specials

  • Kansas/Iona (Orlando)
  • Penn at Arkansas
  • Belmont/Dayton (Orlando)
  • Villanova/La Salle (Palestra)
  • Alabama/Miami (Orlando)

Leftovers