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The Breakfast Buffet: Houston’s first Big 12 road game, Mark Mitchell, Purdue visits Pinnacle Bank Arena

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

Houston’s first Big 12 road game
With all due respect to West Virginia — who the Cougars pounded by 34 on Saturday — this is Houston’s first true taste of the Big 12. For years, Iowa State has had one of the elite home court advantages in college basketball and this season is no different. How good are the Cyclones? No one really knows yet. Iowa State enters tonight’s game against Houston at 11-3, but 10 of its wins have come against Quad 3 and 4 opponents.

Mark Mitchell is exploding for Duke
This is the player that many envisioned we’d see at the start of the season. The 6-9 Mitchell averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds last week in a pair of wins against Notre Dame and Syracuse while shooting an impressive 15-22 from the field. Remember: Mitchell is playing a different position this season at power forward than he did a year ago when he was primarily a wing alongside both Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively up front. The Blue Devils have won six straight games and return to action tonight at Pitt.

Purdue visits Pinnacle Bank Arena
Is this the biggest home game that Fred Hoiberg has had at Nebraska? It certainly feels like it. The Huskers are 12-3 and in position to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. This is the type of game that gets you over the hump on Selection Sunday if you’re fortunate enough to come away with a win. The magnitude of this game is also even more significant given the state of the Big Ten, who had just five teams in the Top 50 of the NET on Monday. There’s not going to be as many opportunities to move the needle within this conference compared to previous seasons. This is a golden opportunity for Nebraska.

On The Side

  • Bill Self said Monday on the College Hoops Today Podcast that developing Kansas’ bench is the biggest key to the Jayhawks having a chance to win a national title this season. “We just haven’t done it consistently,” Self said in regards to getting mileage from the Jayhawks’ reserves. “We’re going to labor from time to time to score, but we need our bench to be better.” Kansas’ five starters — Dajuan Harris, Elmarko Jackson, Kevin McCullar, K.J. Adams, and Hunter Dickinson — are combining to average 81.4 percent of its points.
  • Wisconsin is averaging 75.8 points, which is the highest scoring average of the Greg Gard era.
  • South Carolina quietly has a big week. The 13-1 Gamecocks visit Alabama tonight and Missouri on Saturday.
  • Memphis is 8-1 in games decided by six points or fewer.
  • Since losing to UCLA in the Elite Eight of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, Michigan’s record is just 43-40.

Daily Specials

  • Houston at Iowa State
  • South Carolina at Alabama
  • Purdue at Nebraska
  • BYU at Baylor
  • Duke at Pitt

Leftovers