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The Breakfast Buffet: Drew Timme could explode against Baylor, Illinois/Maryland, Tyree Appleby

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

Drew Timme could explode against Baylor
The Bears have given up an average of 31.3 points in the paint in their three games this season against high-major competition. That bodes well for Timme, an All-American big man who’s averaging 20 points and 7.4 rebounds in Gonzaga’s first seven games. This matchup tonight at the Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota is a rematch of the 2021 national title game, which was won by Baylor. The crazy thing about this showdown between two of the sport’s best programs? The loser is going to have three losses on Dec. 2nd.

Illinois/Maryland
College Park should be on fire for this high-level Big Ten opener. The Terps have won their first seven games under Kevin Willard by an average of 21.9 points. Illinois (6-1) meanwhile, has completely remade its program with tremendous depth and versatility at every single position. It will be interesting to see how this game will go if the Illini can exploit Maryland’s lack of front court depth, which was a concern of Willard’s in the preseason. Illinois has eight different players averaging five points or more while Maryland only has six. The Illini also are playing nine different players double figure minutes while the Terps are only playing six. Illinois is clearly the deeper team. We’ll see if that leads to a road victory tonight in one of the best home environments in all of college basketball.

Tyree Appleby is quietly off to a monster start for Wake Forest
I’m not saying that Appleby is going to have the same caliber of season that Alondes Williams — the 2021-22 ACC Player of the Year — had for the Demon Deacons a season ago, but he’s on that type of trajectory. Entering tonight’s game at Clemson, the 6-1 Appleby — who transferred from Florida — is averaging 19.6 points, 5.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals while shooting 53.4 percent from the field and 45.7 percent from three-point range. Williams averaged 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.2 steals last season for Wake Forest. This is a storyline to monitor both in the ACC and nationally.

On The Side

  • Much like Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr., Arkansas’ Ricky Council IV is not the same player that he was last season. The 6-6 wing is averaging 20 points, three rebounds, and three assists for the 7-1 Razorbacks all while boasting All-SEC caliber ability. Council averaged just 12 points last season at Wichita State.
  • Ethan Morton is the unsung presence in Purdue’s strong start. The 6-7 junior knows what he’s good at and is good at what he knows. Morton is currently leading the Boilers in assists and has 33 dimes to just eight turnovers in his first seven games. Glue Guy? You better believe it.
  • Louisville, Florida State, and Syracuse have an overall combined record of 4-19. All three of these programs have either advanced to the Elite Eight or the Final Four at least once since 2015. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.
  • Butler (5-3) needs to win its next three games — Tennessee Tech, Yale, and at Cal — prior to the start of Big East play. Why? The Bulldogs’ first two conference games are against UConn and Creighton. Yikes!
  • The three best brands in the Mountain West — New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV — are a combined 19-2. It’s been a long time since this league has gotten mileage out of its three most prestigious programs.

Daily Specials

  • Baylor/Gonzaga (Sanford Pentagon)
  • Wake Forest at Clemson
  • Pitt at NC State
  • Colgate at Auburn
  • Illinois at Maryland

Leftovers