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The Breakfast Buffet: Ole Miss/Tennessee, Big 12 begins a new era, Nebraska

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

Ole Miss visits Tennessee
Are the Rebels a top tier team in the SEC? Today’s game in Knoxville will be a strong indicator. Ole Miss AD Keith Carter’s decision to hire Chris Beard last spring has been a home run as the Rebels will take a perfect 13-0 record into today’s SEC opener. Now we’ll find out if this team has staying power at the top of the conference. The Vols have won six straight games since giving 100 points in a loss at North Carolina on Nov. 29th. Ole Miss meanwhile, has been elite this season in close encounters and is 5-0 in games that have been decided by five points or fewer.

The Big 12 begins a new era
You’ll be able to say the same thing a year from now when this conference adds Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah, but today marks the first-ever league games for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF as members of the Big 12. The Cougars and Bearcats will face each other in Provo while Houston hosts West Virginia and UCF visits Kansas State. Today also officially marks the beginning of the first Big 12 season in a long time without a double round-robin format during conference play.

Things are about to get real for Nebraska
A message to all Huskers fans who are excited after the team’s 12-2 start: Don’t drink the champagne just yet. Nebraska visits Wisconsin today at the Kohl Center and then returns home to host Purdue on Tuesday before back-to-back road games at Iowa and Rutgers. If the Huskers get a split in these next four games, we’ll then officially know that they’re then on track to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.

On The Side

  • St. John’s has not won against Villanova on the Wildcats’ campus since 1993. We’ll see if that changes today at Finneran Pavilion with Rick Pitino now on the sidelines for the Red Storm.
  • Tre Holloman has emerged as Michigan State’s “sixth starter”. The 6-2 sophomore has 20 assists to just one turnover in his last five games.
  • Florida’s Riley Kugel is in a massive slump entering today’s game against Kentucky in Gainesville. The 6-5 sophomore — who entered this season with all-conference aspirations — is just 9-40 from the field and 0-18 from three-point range in his last four games.
  • Five teams from the Mountain West — Colorado State, San Diego State, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah State — are currently ranked in the Top 35 of the NET.
  • Mick Cronin is two games under .500 for the first time since March 12, 2008, which was the end of his second season at Cincinnati. That’s 5,778 days ago. UCLA will take a 6-8 mark into tonight’s matchup with Cal at Pauley Pavilion.

Daily Specials

  • Marquette at Seton Hall
  • North Carolina at Clemson
  • Kentucky at Florida
  • Ole Miss at Tennessee
  • Utah at Arizona

Leftovers