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The Breakfast Buffet: Isaiah Evans, Creighton, Mississippi State’s new backcourt

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

Duke’s Isaiah Evans exploded against Texas
Like a volcano just waiting to erupt, the 6-6 Evans didn’t need much time to show America that he’s going to have a breakout season as a sophomore. Evans led the Blue Devils with 23 points including four made three-point shots as Duke beat the Longhorns 75-60 in the Dick Vitale Invitational in Charlotte. He finished 7-13 from the field and 4-8 from long distance in the victory. Evans has the requisites to be one of the sport’s most electric scorers during the 2025-26 season.

Creighton begins the post-Ryan Kalkbrenner era
Tonight will be the first time that the Bluejays have played a game without the 7-1 Kalkbrenner since March 7, 2020. That’s 2,069 days ago! A new era begin for Creighton tonight in Omaha against South Dakota. Kalkbrenner was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year in each of the past four seasons. “We know we’re going to be a work in progress defensively,” Bluejays coach Greg McDermott told College Hoops Today on Tuesday. Creighton is also trying to get Iowa transfer Owen Freeman back healthy after he missed extended time in the preseason due to a knee injury. “He probably won’t be 100 percent until about Jan. 1st,” McDermott said of the 6-9 Freeman, who averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds last season.

Mississippi State’s new look backcourt makes its debut
Josh Hubbard (18.9 points in 2024-25) has been one of the SEC’s most consistent scorers during the past two seasons, but he’s lacked a secondary threat that could relieve some of the offensive burden he’s had to deal with on a nightly basis. That should instantly change tonight as Jayden Epps (Georgetown) makes his debut for the Bulldogs as Chris Jans’ team opens the 2025-26 season in Starkville against North Alabama. The 6-2 Epps averaged 12.8 points last season and should instantly give Mississippi State another impactful scorer on the perimeter. Jans has led the Bulldogs to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

On The Side

  • Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson had 34 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds in Tuesday’s rout of Lindenwood. Don’t be shocked if this kid flirts with All-Big 12 First-Team honors in 2025-26 — he’s that good.
  • A word to the wise: Be patient with Houston. Three of the Cougars’ top six players — Kingston Flemings, Chris Cenac, and Isiah Harwell — are freshman. There’s going to be a major learning curve for this team as the level of competition gradually increases throughout November and December.
  • Texas’ two centers — Matas Vokietaitis and Lassina Traore — combined for nine of the Longhorns’ 16 turnovers in Tuesday night’s loss to Duke.
  • Indiana begins the Darian DeVries era tonight in Bloomington against Alabama A&M at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers have not been to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since Tom Crean went to the Sweet 16 in 2016.
  • Two programs projected to finish in the top half of the Mountain West — Boise State and UNLV — both lost buy games during the first two days of the 2025-26 season.

Daily Specials

  • Rider at Rutgers
  • Alabama A&M at Indiana
  • South Dakota at Creighton
  • Southern at Marquette
  • North Alabama at Mississippi State

Leftovers