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The Breakfast Buffet: Reese Waters, St. John’s/Creighton, Kentucky visits Texas A&M

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

San Diego State needs Reese Waters back on track
The Aztecs can’t be the team that they’re capable of becoming this season unless Waters gets back on track offensively. In his last three games, the 6-6 Waters — who was the Pac-12’s Sixth Man of the Year last season at USC — has scored just 11 points while shooting 5-17 from the field as he’s attempts to get back to 100 percent following an ankle injury. San Diego State needs Waters as a consistent secondary scoring option behind All-American big man Jaedon LeDee (22 points, 8.8 rebounds). Brian Dutcher’s squad will take a six-game winning streak into today’s game at New Mexico. Tip off is at 2 PM ET on CBS.

St. John’s defense faces a major test against Creighton
After giving up 86 points in a loss to Boston College on Dec. 10th, the Red Storm have only allowed an average of 69 points in their last seven games. Maintaining that level today on the road in Omaha will be an extremely difficult task. The Bluejays have the ability to explode like a volcano offensively, as evidenced by their 89-point effort in a win last month at Nebraska when they made 14 three-point shots. 49 percent of Creighton’s field goal attempts this season are from long distance. St. John’s is 1-9 against the Bluejays in Omaha, but has never made the trip with Rick Pitino as its head coach.

Kentucky visits Texas A&M
Desperate times call for desperate measures and the Aggies are desperate for a big win today against the Wildcats. Many people — including me — felt that Texas A&M had the requisites to be a dark horse candidate for the 2024 Final Four, but things haven’t gone according to plan. Buzz Williams’ team enters today’s game against Kentucky at 9-6 and on a two-game losing streak. The Wildcats meanwhile. have won six straight games and only lost once this season — against Kansas in the Champions Classic — with D.J. Wagner in the lineup. The five-star freshman is rounding into form and is averaging 14.7 points in his last three games.

On The Side

  • How good has North Carolina’s defense been? The Tar Heels have held their last three opponents to 57 points or fewer. This program hasn’t done that since the 2010-11 season.
  • Marquette has now lost Sean Jones (knee) for the season and Chase Ross (shoulder) until at least the end of January. The Golden Eagles also already have as many losses in Big East play — three — as they had during all of last season. It feels like Murphy’s Law has hit Milwaukee.
  • Over the last four and a half years, San Diego is 62-11 in Mountain West regular season games.
  • Georgia will very quietly take a 10-game winning streak into today’s game against Tennessee in Athens. The Bulldogs have already tallied 75 percent of their win total from last season, when they went 16-16 in their first year under Mike White.
  • Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard has hit five three-point shots in three separate games this season. This is one one of the best freshmen in college basketball that not enough people are talking about.

Daily Specials

  • Oklahoma at Kansas
  • St. John’s at Creighton
  • San Diego State at New Mexico
  • Kentucky at Texas A&M
  • Houston at TCU

Leftovers