College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Tubby Smith returns to Rupp Arena, Kendric Davis, Darin Green Jr.

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

Tubby Smith returns to Rupp Arena
There’s not much of a college hoops slate today due to the College Football Playoff, but the highlight is Smith’s return to Lexington — a place where he won a national title in 1998 — as High Point takes on Kentucky at Rupp Arena. There’s not many more respected figures in college basketball than Smith, who has taken five programs — Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Texas Tech — to the NCAA Tournament. High Point enters today’s game with just a 6-7 record, but was very competitive in a 13-point loss at Michigan State on Wednesday. Smith will have his jersey retired today in what is part of a ceremony to commemorate his 10-year run as Kentucky’s coach from 1997-2007.

Kendric Davis is playing like an All-American
It’s not an oversight, it’s insult. Davis is barely on people’s radar despite putting up elite numbers in nearly every statistical category. The 6-foot senior is averaging 21.6 points, 5.2 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.5 steals while shooting an incredible 50.3 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from three-point range. He’s also on an SMU team right now that’s won seven games in a row and will take a 10-3 record into Sunday’s game in Dallas against UCF. If the Ponies can continue their momentum as a team, it will only raise Davis’ profile. This is a dark horse candidate to be an All-American.

UCF has a sniper in Darin Green Jr.
If there’s a better shooter in college basketball than this kid, I’d like to see him. The 6-5 junior entered Thursday night’s game against Michigan shooting 40.8 percent from three-point range and then exploded like a volcano. Green had a career-high 27 points in the 85-71 win over the Wolverines, but the way he got his points — shooting 10-13 from the field and an astronomical 7-9 from three-point range — was utterly ridiculous. Green sent a message with his performance and the Knights sent a message with the win. UCF is now 9-2, with its only losses coming against Auburn and Oklahoma.

On The Side

  • Providence (12-1) currently has five Quad 1 wins. No other team in college basketball has more than three.
  • Kentucky’s Sahvir Wheeler has 25 assists and just six turnovers in his last three games. A transfer from Georgia, Wheeler is currently second nationally (7.8) in assists behind Saint Louis’ Yuri Collins. This is the gas in the Wildcats’ engine.
  • Texas can’t compete for a Big 12 regular season title unless it gets Courtney Ramey back on track. The 6-3 senior is only averaging 8.3 points and hasn’t scored in double figures since Nov. 29th. Ramey averaged 12.2 points last season as a junior.
  • Miami (10-3) has quietly won six straight games and fifth-year senior Kameron McGusty is a major reason why. The 6-5 wing is averaging 22.8 points over his last four games is performing like an All-ACC first-team caliber player.
  • Memphis (6-5) has now lost to two teams — Tulane and Georgia — who as of Thursday were not ranked in the Top 190 of the NET. It’s getting harder and harder to see how the Tigers are going to be able to put together an at-large resume for the NCAA Tournament.

Daily Specials

  • High Point at Kentucky

Leftovers