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The Breakfast Buffet: Purdue, Saint Louis’ big week, Duke

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

Purdue needs to draw first blood in Big Ten play
If last season’s 16-15 finish was truly an aberration for the Boilermakers, then Matt Painter’s squad needs to send a direct message in its Big Ten opener tonight against Ohio State. Purdue enters this evening’s tilt in West Lafayette at 4-2 overall with losses to Clemson and Miami; the Boilermakers had an 18-point halftime lead last week against the Hurricanes before falling by four. It is imperative for Purdue to protect its home floor and re-establish its place in the Big Ten. Prior to finishing tied for 10th place in the league a year ago, the Boilermakers had never finished lower than third in the conference standings since the 13-14 season.

The Atlantic 10 needs mileage out of Saint Louis this week
Travis Ford’s squad has two golden opportunities over the next five days as the Billikens host NC State on Thursday and then travel to Minnesota on Sunday. That’s two games against power conference opponents for a team that already has a win over LSU on its resume. Why is that so important for the Atlantic 10? Richmond’s win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena is not carrying the weight that many expected and as of now, the league doesn’t have many other quality non-conference wins. VCU owns neutral court victories over both Memphis and Utah State, but as of now those victories aren’t guaranteed to hold up all the way to Selection Sunday. This league needs Saint Louis to continue to separate itself.

We’ll find out a lot about Duke after tonight’s trip to Notre Dame
Who exactly are the Blue Devils this season? We should have a pretty good idea after they open ACC play tonight in South Bend. Duke didn’t threaten Michigan State and Illinois in a pair of home losses at Cameron Indoor Stadium over the past few weeks and it remains to be seen how competitive it will be against comparable competition on the road. The Blue Devils will also be playing their first game without five-star freshman Jalen Johnson, who is out indefinitely with a foot injury. The 6-9 forward was averaging 11.5 points and 8.3 rebounds as a starter.

On The Side

  • Need another reason why this is Steve Wojciechowski’s toughest team at Marquette? The Golden Eagles outrebounded their last two opponents —- Creighton and UCLA — by a combined 21 on the glass.
  • Save this date: Jan. 29th. Why? It’s the day of the only regular season meeting between Illinois and Iowa. Kofi Cockburn against Luka Garza? Sounds delicious!
  • Arizona has yet to play a power conference opponent this season and will begin Pac-12 play on Saturday against Stanford. The 5-0 Wildcats host Cal Baptist tonight in Tucson.
  • Bones Hyland is breaking out for VCU. The 6-3 sophomore had 31 in Tuesday’s win over Western Carolina and is averaging 18.6 points through the Rams’ first eight games. Hyland averaged nine points last season as a freshman.
  • As of Tuesday, over 91 percent of all Division 1 college basketball programs were still up and running during a once-in-a-century global pandemic. That’s a major win for college basketball given the circumstances.

Daily Specials

  • Pitt at Miami
  • Butler at Villanova
  • Ohio State at Purdue
  • South Florida at Cincinnati
  • Duke at Notre Dame

Leftovers: