College Hoops Today

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The Breakfast Buffet: Texas Tech’s big week, Chris Duarte, Tyler Polley

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

Texas Tech has a gigantic week
How good are the Red Raiders? No one truly knows yet. Texas Tech improved to 10-3 following Saturday’s win at Iowa State, but its best victory so far this season is a two-point road triumph at Oklahoma. We’ll know a lot more about Chris Beard’s squad after the next six days as the Red Raiders travel to Austin Wednesday to face Texas and then return home on Saturday to host Baylor. The rubber is about to meet the road. 

Chris Duarte is the best player in the Pac-12
There are other players in the Pac-12 who may boast more long-term pro potential, but right now nobody in this conference is playing better than Duarte. That includes both sides of the floor. The 6-6 wing has tallied a total of 14 steals during Oregon’s last three games while averaging 25 points and five rebounds during that same span. Duarte is also shooting 55 percent from the field this season and 45.6 percent from three-point range. There are several reasons why the Ducks are again in the mix to win the Pac-12 regular season title, but as of now Duarte looks like the biggest. Oregon will next host Arizona State on Thursday in Eugene.

Tyler Polley is emerging for UConn
The Huskies are 16-6 in games where Polley has scored in double figures since Dan Hurley became the Huskies’ coach in 2018. The 6-9 forward is averaging 21 points during his last two tilts and has given UConn a go-to scorer with James Bouknight out of the lineup due to an elbow injury. One other important note: Polley did not play when the Huskies suffered their only loss of the year versus Creighton. UConn is 6-1 and closes out its road trip tonight in Chicago at DePaul.

On The Side

  • Bill Self is pushing the right buttons with David McCormack. After barely playing in the second half of last week’s home loss to Texas, McCormack bounced back to average 18.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in Kansas’ next two games. If this continues and the Jayhawks have a reliable piece in the paint, it will drastically change their long-term prognosis. 
  • Stanford is getting mileage out of freshman point guard Michael O’Connell. In his last three games, O’Connell has played a total of 99 minutes with 14 assists and zero turnovers. 
  • Virginia Tech’s Jalen Cone moves without the basketball as well as any player in the sport. It’s paying off. The 5-10 guard is averaging 17.8 points over his last four games and is 19-45 from three-point range during that span.
  • Steve Alford quietly has Nevada (8-5) ahead of schedule. The Wolf Pack didn’t win either of their games last week at Viejas Arena against San Diego State, but they only lost both by a combined seven points. This program is again on the verge of becoming a real player in the Mountain West and has two power conference transfers sitting out in Addison Patterson (Oregon) and Will Baker (Texas).
  • St. John’s defense continues to be a major problem. The Red Storm have surrendered 77 or more points in five of their first six Big East games and are giving up an average of 86.1 points during conference play. 

Daily Specials

  • Temple at SMU
  • Colorado at Utah
  • UConn at DePaul
  • Loyola Chicago at Indiana State
  • Boise State at Wyoming

Leftovers: