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The Breakfast Buffet: Michigan State, Memphis, Dereon Seabron

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

Michigan State is a difficult team to prepare for
There’s no Gary Harris, Miles Bridges, or Jaren Jackson Jr. on this team, but Tom Izzo still has plenty of guys who can lead the Spartans in scoring on a given night. Michigan State had six players — A.J. Hoggard, Jaden Akins, Malik Hall, Marcus Bingham, Gabe Brown, and Max Christie — score between nine and 15 points in Wednesday night’s 73-64 win over Louisville, further cementing this squad’s overall balance. Who will opposing teams try and take away when the Spartans get into the guts of Big Ten play? There’s no clear cut answer in early December. Michigan State has options offensively.

Memphis again proves that it’s hard to trust
Georgia entered Wednesday night’s showdown coming off a home loss to Wofford and on a four-game losing streak. It then found a way to beat the Tigers. What does that tell us about Memphis? I’ll say the same thing that I said when the world was hyping up the this team when it landed both Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren prior to the season: Proceed with caution. Penny Hardaway has done a tremendous job both recruiting and energizing his alma mater, but he still hasn’t taken Memphis to the NCAA Tournament since he was named head coach. The Tigers have now suffered back-to-back losses to one team who was picked last in the Big 12 Preseason Poll — Iowa State — and another in Georgia that has a losing record. It won’t get any easier. Memphis will next play at Ole Miss then return home to play Alabama and Murray State before squaring off against Tennessee in a neutral site game in Nashville on Dec. 18th.

Dereon Seabron is one of the most improved players in the country
And that’s just not because he had 39 points and 18 rebounds in NC State’s quadruple-overtime win over Nebraska on Wednesday night. Players always make their biggest jumps from their freshman to sophomore year, but Seabron hasn’t made a jump — he’s made a quantum leap. The 6-7 wing is playing with the confidence of someone who knows that he’s one of the best players in the ACC. Seabron averaged 5.2 points and 3.2 rebounds a year ago; entering last night’s game against Nebraska, he was averaging 18.8 points and 9.7 rebounds. This kid is a gamer.

On The Side

  • Notre Dame has one of the best freshmen in the ACC in 6-5 guard Blake Wesley. The South Bend native had 24 points in Monday night’s loss at Illinois and is averaging 16 points over his last three tilts. Don’t be shocked if Mike Brey increases Wesley’s minutes as the season progresses.
  • It’s gone from bad to worse at Arizona State. The Sun Devils only scored 29 points in Wednesday night’s 22-point loss to Washington State and are now just 2-6 overall. Bobby Hurley’s team will next travel to Oregon then return home to host Grand Canyon. A trip to Creighton follows with a game in Tempe against San Francisco (8-0) right behind. Nothing in this stretch will be simple.
  • Eight ranked teams played between 7 PM ET and 9 PM ET on Wednesday night and that doesn’t include games like Virginia Tech/Maryland or Providence/Texas Tech. I’ll say it again: College basketball needs more standalone games.
  • Saint Mary’s begins a critical stretch on the road tonight at Utah State (9 PM ET, CBS Sports Network). Following tonight’s tilt with the Aggies, the Gaels will travel to Colorado State, host Big West favorite UC Santa Barbara, and then face San Diego State in a neutral site game in Phoenix. Randy Bennett’s team is 7-1 with wins over Oregon and Notre Dame.
  • Oral Roberts’ Max Abmas is starting to explode. The top scorer in college basketball during last season, Abmas is averaging 33.5 PPG in his last two games as the Golden Eagles are set to visit TCU tonight. This is an extremely dangerous buy game for Jamie Dixon and the Horned Frogs.

Daily Specials

  • Missouri at Liberty
  • Oral Roberts at TCU
  • Lamar at Mississippi State
  • Saint Mary’s at Utah State
  • Oregon State at Cal

Leftovers