College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Kam Jones against Braden Smith, Cincinnati hits the road, Speedy Claxton

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

Kam Jones against Braden Smith
Fiserv Forum will play host tonight to this terrific individual matchup between two of the best guards in the sport. Jones (24.0 points, 5.0 assists, 3.8 rebounds) and Smith (15.5 points, 9.5 assists, 6.3 rebounds) are both leading their respective teams — Marquette and Purdue — one season after both programs lost a pair of all-time greats in Tyler Kolek for the Golden Eagles and Zach Edey for the Boilers. Neither program looks like it’s slowing down anytime soon. Both teams enter tonight’s game in Milwaukee undefeated. Keep an eye Purdue big man Trey Kaufman-Renn (18 points, 6.3 rebounds), who broke out last Friday and had 26 points and eight rebounds against Alabama.

Cincinnati hits the road
The Bearcats obliterated their first three opponents by an average of 43 points, but those were buy games in the friendly confines of Fifth Third Arena. Wes Miller’s squad will travel to nearby Northern Kentucky tonight and then visit Georgia Tech on Saturday. These games will a much better indicator of Cincinnati’s ability than its previous three games. Day Day Thomas — who averaged 10.4 points and 3.3 assists last season — has yet to play because of a foot injury while Dan Skillings is also out indefinitely following a knee procedure. The 6-6 Skillings has appeared in one game this season and tallied 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Speedy Claxton has Hofstra trending upward
And the Pride have two more opportunities to move the needle this week, starting with tonight’s game against Florida State in Tallahassee. Claxton won a combined 66 games his first three seasons as head coach of his alma mater, but he may be in the initial stages of doing the best coaching job of his young career considering that Hofstra was picked fourth in the CAA Preseason Poll. The Pride beat Seton Hall last week and also won a buy game at UMass, setting the table for a significant opportunity tonight against Florida State before a trip to Houston on Friday. It’s very difficult to separate yourself as a mid-major head coach if you’re not advancing to the NCAA Tournament, but Claxton has two more chances to do so this week. Two weeks into the 2024-25 season, Hofstra is without question a story that’s worth monitoring.

On The Side

  • Six of the eight teams in next week’s Maui Invitational — UConn, Memphis, Michigan State, Auburn, Iowa State, and North Carolina — were ranked in this week’s edition of the ROTHSTEIN 45.
  • San Diego State’s Reese Waters (foot) will undergo more tests in the next few days, but is still OUT for next week’s Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Brian Dutcher told College Hoops Today. The 6-6 Waters averaged 9.6 points last season and is the only real returning piece of significance from last season’s team that advanced to the Sweet 16 and lost to UConn. . 
  • Rutgers’ top three scorers — Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, and Lathan Sommerville — are freshmen.
  • The most underrated backcourt in college basketball may be Saint Louis’ tandem of Isaiah Swope and Gibson Jimerson, who are currently combining to average 40.6 points. Swope and Jimerson have also combined to make 25 three-point shots in the Billikens’ first three games. Josh Schertz’s team is going to be really interesting when big man Robbie Avila (16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds) returns from an ankle injury.
  • Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd was this week’s guest on the College Hoops Today Podcast.  

Daily Specials

  • Cincinnati at Northern Kentucky
  • Hofstra at Florida State
  • Penn at Villanova
  • Samford at Michigan State
  • Purdue at Marquette

Leftovers