College Hoops Today

Serving College Basketball 365 Days a Year

The Breakfast Buffet: Iowa State sent a message, Duke, Darryn Peterson

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

Iowa State sent a message
We knew that the Cyclones were good, but we didn’t know that they were capable of doing what they did on Saturday. Iowa State’s 23-point win over Purdue in West Lafayette tied the biggest margin of defeat ever by a team that was ranked first in the AP Poll on its home floor. That’s simply incredible. The Cyclones were 11-23 from three-point range in the victory and 7-12 from long distance in the second half. T.J. Otzelberger’s squad is now 9-0 and will next host Iowa on Thursday night at Hilton Coliseum.

Duke is made for the road
Saturday’s 66-60 win at Michigan State was the Blue Devils’ best win this season, but it also reiterates how capable this team is away from Cameron Indoor Stadium. Five of Duke’s first 10 games have been in neutral or road environments, highlighted by neutral site wins over Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas as well as Saturday’s narrow victory in East Lansing. The Blue Devils’ defense has a lot to do with it. Duke held the Spartans to just 60 points on their home floor when they entered the game averaging 78.6 PPG. Jon Scheyer’s squad will also play neutral site games against Texas Tech (Dec. 20th) and Michigan (Feb. 21st) during the regular season before Selection Sunday.

Darryn Peterson returns for Kansas against Missouri
The highly touted freshman and maybe the best long-term prospect in college basketball is expected to be back in the Jayhawks’ lineup today in Kansas City for the first time in about a month due to a hamstring injury. Kansas badly needs him. Bill Self deserves credit for rallying his team to wins over Tennessee, Notre Dame, and Syracuse without Peterson, but the Jayhawks are going to need their star to compete at the top of Big 12 in January and February. The 6-6 freshman averaged 21.5 points in two games this season prior to injury.

On The Side

  • Five of North Carolina’s next six games are in Chapel Hill, starting with today’s tilt against Georgetown.
  • Is LSU for real? We’ll have a better idea after today’s game against Texas Tech in Fort Worth. The Tigers are currently 8-0, but their only power conference victories came against DePaul and Boston College.
  • 52.2 percent of Nebraska’s field goal attempts are from three-point range entering today’s game against in-state rival Creighton at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers are 8-0 and off to their best start since the 1977-78 season.
  • How about the line for Virginia’s Jacari White in Saturday’s win over Dayton? 25 points on 9-9 shooting from the field and 7-7 from three-point range. That’s illegal in 48 states!
  • TCU has already lost three home games this season (New Orleans, Michigan, and Notre Dame), but won back-to-back neutral site tilts against Florida and Wisconsin in San Diego during Thanksgiving Weekend. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.

Daily Specials

  • Missouri/Kansas
  • LSU/Texas Tech
  • Georgetown at North Carolina
  • Creighton at Nebraska
  • SMU/Texas A&M

Leftovers