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The Breakfast Buffet: Arizona/Wichita State, Jack Nunge, Tony Stubblefield

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

Tommy Lloyd’s first real test as Arizona’s head coach
The former Gonzaga assistant has ripped through his first few opponents like a chainsaw through butter, winning his first three games by an average of 48.3 points. The weight class will be raised this weekend in Las Vegas. Arizona opens the Roman Main Event tonight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas against Wichita State — a program that won the American Athletic Conference regular season title last year — and then will play either Michigan or UNLV on Sunday. We’ll know a lot more about the Wildcats after the next 80 minutes.

Life hit Jack Nunge back against Ohio State
Sometimes we get a story like this. You know, the type of feel good story that makes you instantly smile and want to do a pushup somewhere on a picket fence. A few years ago, the 7-foot Nunge was starting for Iowa in the frontcourt alongside Luka Garza and suffered a torn ACL. Following the injury, he rehabbed and then had to deal with the tragic passing of his father. It was a classic case of Murphy’s Law. Nunge then opted to leave Iowa and transfer to Xavier in hopes of a fresh start. He got just that on Thursday night against Ohio State. Nunge asserted himself against the Buckeyes as soon as he got onto the floor and finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds, two blocks, and three steals in the 71-65 win. This kid deserved to have a night like he enjoyed on Thursday at the Cintas Center as he reminded all of us of one very important life lesson: tough situations can often be the incubator of great turnarounds.

Tony Stubblefield is coaching his tail off at DePaul
Winning the games that you’re supposed to win is part of what a first-time head coach hopes to achieve, but Stubblefield did much more than that on Thursday night. DePaul’s 73-70 win over Rutgers — a team that nearly made the Sweet 16 last March — was a tremendous moment for a program that has been searching for reasons to be optimistic. There’s much more to this than just the victory. The Blue Demons won the game without Oregon transfer Jalen Terry and Kansas transfer Tyon Grant-Foster — two players who were expected to be starters for DePaul on the perimeter. Both are currently out of the lineup for various reasons. The fact that the Blue Demons could beat an opponent with the cache of Rutgers without two perimeter starters is a credit to Stubblefield. There’s still plenty of work to be done for this program to be taken as a serious threat in the Big East, but a foundation of playing hard and constantly competing is being laid in Chicago. The Blue Demons are 3-0, with their first two wins coming by an average of 29 points. Considering where DePaul has been in the past, that’s a heck of a way to start a season.

On The Side

  • Kentucky’s game against Ohio tonight at Rupp Arena should be the Wildcats’ most difficult test until they travel to Notre Dame on Dec. 11th. The Bobcats have already beaten Belmont and won a road game at Horizon League favorite Cleveland State.
  • UCLA’s Tyger Campbell is shooting 61 percent from three-point range through the Bruins’ first four games. He shot 25 percent from long distance a year ago. Campbell also has a total of 19 assists to just four turnovers.
  • Villanova’s Brandon Slater has already made nine three-point shots this season — he made 10 during all of last year. The 6-7 wing is averaging 16.7 points and 4.3 rebounds after averaging 3.8 points and 2.2 rebounds a year ago.
  • Florida is getting defensive. Through three games, the Gators are only surrendering an average of 53.6 points. This looks like the toughest team that Mike White has had since he’s been the head coach in Gainesville.
  • 20 months ago, Dayton was in position to be a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament before it was cancelled due to COVID. In the past six days, the Flyers have lost buy games to both UMass Lowell and Lipscomb. Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.

Daily Specials

  • St. Bonaventure/Clemson (Charleston)
  • Marquette/West Virginia (Charleston)
  • Ohio at Kentucky
  • Arizona/Wichita State (Las Vegas)
  • Michigan/UNLV (Las Vegas)

Leftovers