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The Breakfast Buffet: Gonzaga’s continuity, Derik Queen, UCF stuns Texas A&M

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’s continuity overwhelmed Baylor
The Bulldogs returned over 75 percent of their scoring from last season’s team that won 27 games and lost to Purdue in the Sweet 16. The Bears have three new starters. All of it was apparent in Gonzaga’s 101-63 win over Baylor on Monday night at Spokane Arena. The Bulldogs’ rhythm, chemistry, and collective know-how was apparent from the opening tip and they finished with 25 assists on 40 made field goals in a game where they shot a whopping 57.1 percent from the field. As evidenced by UConn and Purdue last April, retention is the biggest key to having major success in this current climate. Those two teams started a combined seven players in last season’s national title game who were in their respective programs the year prior. Six of Gonzaga’s top seven scorers — Graham Ike, Nolan Hickman, Braden Huff, Ryan Nembhard, Ben Gregg, and Dusty Stromer — are back from last season.

Derik Queen made an impression in his Maryland debut
It wasn’t against a power conference caliber opponent, but Queen’s 22-point, 20-rebound performance in the Terps’ win over Manhattan on Monday night was the first time that this program had a player tally 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game since Joe Smith did it in the 1990s. This kid is the real deal. An effortless offensive talent, the 6-10 Queen was 9-16 from the floor against the Jaspers and looks primed to be one of the best freshmen in the country during the 2024-25 college basketball season.

UCF stuns Texas A&M
We quickly found out whether or not the Knights deserve the label of being the sleeper team in the Big 12 this season. Playing without a starter in veteran guard Jaylin Sellers (15.9 points, 3.6 rebounds in 2023-24) — who’s currently out with an undisclosed injury — UCF rallied from a nine-point deficit with just under five minutes to play to shock the Aggies with a 64-61 win. Texas A&M was ranked 13th in this week’s ROTHSTEIN 45. The Knights were led by Darius Johnson’s 24 points and five assists. 7-2 freshman Moustapha Thiam also quietly had a major impact in the win for UCF as he blocked six shots in 22 minutes. Johnny Dawkins looks like he has a bubble team — at least.

On The Side

  • UConn’s Dan Hurley is this week’s guest on the College Hoops Today Podcast.
  • Purdue has not lost a regular season non-conference game since Dec. 8th, 2020. That’s 1,428 days ago.
  • The Big East had four of its teams — Butler, DePaul, Providence, and Seton Hall — win their respective buy games on Monday night by a combined 17 points. This league was very fortunate that it didn’t endure a costly defeat.
  • BYU’s Kevin Young will make his Division 1 head coaching debut tonight in Provo against Central Arkansas. The 42-year old Young has spent the past few seasons as an assistant with the Phoenix Suns and last served as a head coach for the Delaware Blue Coats in the NBA G-League from 2014-16. The Cougars are currently ranked 39th in the ROTHSTEIN 45.
  • Texas Tech’s Devan Cambridge (knee) is expected to be available for tonight’s opener against Bethune-Cookman, Grant McCasland told College Hoops Today. The 6-6 forward averaged 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds last season in eight games prior to injury. Texas Tech is currently ranked 29th in the ROTHSTEIN 45.

Daily Specials

  • Bethune-Cookman at Texas Tech
  • New Orleans at Kansas State
  • Idaho State at Arizona State
  • Central Arkansas at BYU
  • UC Davis at Washington

Leftovers