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The Breakfast Buffet: Michigan/Wake Forest, Gonzaga returns to action, Tahaad Pettiford

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/Wake Forest
Dusty May’s first big game as the Wolverines’ head coach occurs today in Greensboro against an opponent that could very well be the third-best team in the ACC behind Duke and North Carolina. With that said, Wake Forest needs to win games like today if it’s eventually going to break through and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Steve Forbes. Remember: The Demon Deacons have won a combined 65 games in the past three seasons, but have yet to qualify for March Madness. Keep a close eye on the matchup at point guard between Michigan’s Tre Donaldson — who had 16 points and seven assists in Wolverines’ opener against Cleveland State — and All-American candidate Hunter Sallis (12 points, four assists, three rebounds). This feels like an 8/9 game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga returns to action against Arizona State
No team was more impressive during college basketball’s opening week than the Bulldogs, who beat Baylor by 38 points on Monday night at Spokane Arena. Mark Few’s team will return to action today against Arizona State, who’s won its first two games against Idaho State and Santa Clara by a combined 14 points. The Bulldogs assisted on 62.5 percent of their made field goals against Baylor and should be razor sharp for their on-campus opener at “The Kennel”. Bobby Hurley has won several big games non-conference games during his tenure with the Sun Devils, but a victory today would usurp all of them.

Tahaad Pettiford broke out against Houston
Auburn’s 74-69 win over the Cougars on Saturday night at the Toyota Center was special for a number of reasons. One of them was because it was a breakout party for Pettiford, the 6-1 freshman from Jersey City who came off the bench to score 21 points in reserve. After going scoreless in his college debut earlier in the week against Vermont, Pettiford rose to the challenge on a big stage and made big shot after big shot to lead the Tigers to the best win we’ve seen thus far during the 2024-25 college basketball season. He was also 7-12 from the field and 5-8 from three-point range all while adding three rebounds and three assists. Whatever “it” is, Pettiford possessed against Houston.

On The Side

  • In its first two games, UConn has 45 assists on 64 made field goals.
  • Tre Johnson may be the best scoring freshman that Texas has had since Kevin Durant. Through two games, the 6-6 Johnson is averaging 28.5 points and is a whopping 10-18 from three-point range. That’s utterly ridiculous.
  • Things you didn’t think you’d write: Tennessee had 20 turnovers on Saturday against Louisville and still won on the Cards’ home floor by 22 points.
  • VCU’s 25-point win over Boston College on Friday night in the Veterans Classic was mightily impressive, but will the Rams have enough non-conference opportunities to build an at-large resume if they don’t win the Atlantic 10 Tournament? VCU currently only has one guaranteed game against a power conference opponent on its non-conference schedule: A first-round matchup with Seton Hall —- who lost to Fordham on Saturday — in the first round of the Charleston Classic on Nov. 21st.
  • Penn State has scored 100 or more points in back-to-back games for the first time in program history.

Daily Specials

  • Eastern Illinois at Indiana
  • App State at Wisconsin
  • Michigan/Wake Forest (Greensboro)
  • Arizona State at Gonzaga
  • FDU at Creighton

Leftovers