College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Kadary Richmond, Houston, Kyle Smith

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

Kadary Richmond is a bonafide Big East Player of the Year candidate
Seton Hall is the surprise team in the Big East and Richmond is one of the primary reasons why. The 6-6 senior is playing the best basketball of his career, which has been reiterated over the past two weeks during the Pirates’ four-game winning streak. During that span, Richmond is averaging 20.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and six assists. If Seton Hall — who is currently 12-5 and in sole possession of first place in the Big East — continues to rise under Shaheen Holloway, Richmond will undoubtedly begin being mentioned as a potential All-American. This is ONLY January.

Welcome to the Big 12, Houston
The Cougars were a combined 46-6 in regular season league games during the past three years in the American Athletic Conference. Today, they’re 1-2 in Big 12 play after Saturday night’s one-point loss at TCU. This is life in the best conference in college basketball. One big thing to remember: Houston is going to be involved in significantly more close games during the regular season than it was when it was a member of the AAC. The Cougars’ losses this past week to TCU and Iowa State were by a combined five points.

Kyle Smith deserves credit for the job he’s doing at Washington State
The program lost its top four scorers — TJ Bamba, Mouhamed Gueye, Justin Powell, and DJ Rodman — from last season’s team that finished 17-17. Then after the breakup of the Pac-12, Washington State made the decision to join the WCC at the conclusion of this season because it didn’t have an invitation from another power conference. None of it has mattered on the basketball court. Smith — who was previously the head coach at both San Francisco and Columbia — is doing arguably his best coaching job and has the Cougars at 12-5 after Saturday’s upset win over Arizona. Tough situations can often be the incubators of incredible turnarounds — it appears that’s what is happening at Washington State.

On The Side

  • Only four head coaches — Bill Self (Kansas), Mark Few (Gonzaga), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), and Mick Cronin (UCLA) — have led their teams to the last 12 NCAA Tournaments. Self is the only lock out of that group to return this season.
  • Johnny Furphy is starting to emerge for Kansas. The 6-9 freshman averaged eight points and 3.5 rebounds in two games this past week. Remember the name.
  • UConn has won six straight meetings against Georgetown entering today’s matchup at the XL Center in Hartford.
  • Maryland’s two freshmen — DeShawn Harris-Smith and Jamie Kaiser — are a combined 23-of-107 from three-point range entering today’s game against Illinois in Champaign.
  • Xavier is the most dangerous .500 team in college basketball and it may not be close. The Musketeers took UConn to the wire on Wednesday at the Cintas Center and won at Providence by 20 on Saturday. Sean Miller’s team was ranked 43rd in the NET on Sunday.

Daily Specials

  • Georgetown at UConn
  • UAB at Florida Atlantic
  • Rutgers at Michigan State
  • Memphis at Wichita State
  • Maryland at Illinois

Leftovers