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The Breakfast Buffet: La Salle/Villanova, Auburn has its hands full with George Mason, Memphis/Vanderbilt

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

La Salle/Villanova
It’s been 21 and a half years since the Wildcats have played a game without Jay Wright as their head coach. It’s been three and a half years since Fran Dunphy — La Salle’s current head coach — has coached a game. Nevertheless, Dunphy — who has previously coached at both Temple and Penn — will square off with Wright’s successor and former longtime assistant — Kyle Neptune — tonight at Finneran Pavilion in what should be a delicious Big 5 battle to open the season. Villanova’s two most talented players — Justin Moore (achilles) and Cam Whitmore (thumb) — are both out with injuries, but the Wildcats should have more than enough to hold serve at home. The Explorers were picked to finish 14th out of 15 teams in the Atlantic 10’s preseason poll.

Auburn has its hands full against George Mason
A dangerous 40 minutes awaits Bruce Pearl and the Tigers. George Mason has a chance to be one of the most improved teams in the country and one of the better teams in the Atlantic 10 in its second season under Kim English, thanks to a quality returning nucleus and strong assortment of newcomers. The Patriots return three double-figure scorers from last season, headlined by All-Atlantic 10 first-team forward Josh Oduro (17.5 points, 7.7 rebounds). Tennessee transfer Victor Bailey, New Mexico transfer Saquan Singleton, and Top-100 freshman Justyn Fernandez are key newcomers. And Auburn? The Tigers don’t have the star power that they possessed a year ago with Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, but they still have enough to be one of the better teams in the SEC. Unlike last season, this group will do its damage more by committee. Don’t be shocked if Pearl extends his rotation to as many as 11 players as he aims to wear opponents down over the course of 40 minutes. Auburn will need all of its reinforcements tonight. This is a scary opener for the Tigers.

Memphis kicks off its early season gauntlet against Vanderbilt
This is the beginning of what’s going to be a brutal November for the Tigers. Following tonight’s opener in Nashville, Memphis will travel to Saint Louis on Nov. 15th (9 PM ET, CBS Sports Network) and then return home to host VCU on Nov. 20th at FedEx Forum. The Tigers will then play three games in the ESPN Invitational in Orlando during Thanksgiving Weekend against three potential power conference opponents. Memphis will open that event against Seton Hall and then play either Oklahoma or Nebraska in the second round. Florida State, Siena, Ole Miss, and Stanford are on the other side of the bracket. There’s no surefire wins in the first six games of the Tigers’ schedule.

On The Side

  • The health of Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe — last season’s National Player of the Year — is officially a concern. John Calipari told reporters last week that he didn’t think that Tshiebwe — who recently had knee surgery — would play in tonight’s opener against Howard or in Friday’s game against Duquesne. The 6-9 big man averaged 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds last season.
  • 30 years after Juwan Howard started at center for Michigan when the Fab Five reached the 1992 national title game, his two sons — Jett and Jace — are both on the Wolverines’ roster. Life is beautiful! Michigan opens the 2022-23 season tonight in Ann Arbor against Purdue Fort Wayne. Howard is entering his fourth season as head coach of his alma mater.
  • USC’s Andy Enfield will face his former school tonight as Florida Gulf Coast visits the Galen Center. Enfield led the Eagles to the Sweet 16 in 2013 before becoming the head coach of the Trojans.
  • TCU — who’s currently ranked 10th in the ROTHSTEIN 45 — will play 11 of its first 14 games in the state of Texas, starting with tonight’s opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Nine of those games are at home. The Horned Frogs return five starters from last season’s team that nearly beat Arizona in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
  • The best mid-major matchup tonight in college basketball? The showdown between Penn and Iona in New Rochelle. Both teams were picked to win their respective conferences in the preseason.

Daily Specials

  • La Salle at Villanova
  • Penn at Iona
  • George Mason at Auburn
  • Memphis at Vanderbilt
  • Oral Roberts at Saint Mary’s

Leftovers