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The Breakfast Buffet: Gonzaga is punishing the WCC, Davion Mintz, Parity has returned to college basketball

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

Gonzaga is punishing its WCC opponents
Remember when an improved WCC was potentially going to push the Bulldogs this season in conference play? Forget about it! Gonzaga has won its first three WCC games by an average of 34 points and is averaging a whopping 114 points during that span. One of those victories came against BYU — a team firmly in the NCAA Tournament picture — by 26 on a night where the Cougars scored 84 and made 13 three-point shots. The gap between Mark Few’s squad and the rest of this league — at least for now — remains incredibly wide.

Davion Mintz is emerging for Kentucky
This is the oldest team that John Calipari has had during his tenure in Lexington and the overall experience of this group is showing. A big part of that is Mintz. The former Creighton guard came off the bench to score 10 points in 21 minutes in Saturday’s win over Tennessee and is averaging 13.5 points while shooting 56.5 percent from three-point range over his last four outings. Mintz isn’t getting the same attention as Sahvir Wheeler, Kellan Grady, or Oscar Tshiebwe, but he’s quietly becoming an integral piece in the Wildcats’ operation.

Parity has returned to college basketball
Unlike a year ago when Baylor and Gonzaga were clearly the best two teams in the sport, this season is primed to create its share of chaos. Saturday was a perfect example. Eight teams in this week’s AP Top 25 — Baylor, USC, Michigan State, LSU, Seton Hall, Texas, Texas Tech, and Tennessee — all lost on Saturday, with four of those losses coming at home to unranked teams. After starting 15-0, Baylor — who was the top ranked team in the country for weeks — has lost back-to-back games on its home floor. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.

On The Side

  • 12 of Arizona’s 14 wins have come by double figures. It has 14 wins in its first 15 games. What does it all mean? Tommy Lloyd is the early favorite for National Coach of the Year.
  • Auburn (16-1) has never been the top-ranked team in the AP Top 25 — that could change on Monday. It’s time to start discussing where the rebuilding job that Bruce Pearl has done with the Tigers ranks among the best that we’ve seen in the sport over the last few decades.
  • Another sign that Illinois (13-3) is vastly underrated? The Illini have led by double figures in each of their three losses this season. Keep your eye on this team.
  • Kansas State’s win over Texas Tech on Saturday and Northwestern’s win at Michigan State on Saturday — even without Pete Nance (17.1 points, 7.7 rebounds) — shouldn’t come as a major shock if you’ve followed these two teams closely. Both have been extremely competitive during the start of conference play. Now we’ll see if either of these teams — who are both 9-6 — can continue to gain momentum moving forward.
  • St. John’s (9-5) game today against Georgetown (6-7) at Madison Square Garden is essentially a must win. The Red Storm currently have no Quad 1 wins and have already endured one Quad 4 loss this season when it lost to Pitt in December

Daily Specials

  • Butler at Villanova
  • Penn State at Ohio State
  • Cincinnati at Wichita State
  • Iowa at Minnesota
  • Georgetown at St. John’s

Leftovers