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The Breakfast Buffet: Xavier’s trip to Villanova, UConn/Marquette, Kansas’ first true road game

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

Xavier’s trip to Villanova
The great Ric Flair once said “To be the man, you gotta beat the man” and for Xavier to be truly taken seriously as a contender for the Big East regular season title, it has to beat Villanova. It will be far from easy. The Wildcats are coming off a two-game losing streak by an average of 20.5 points and will be extremely focused after losing their conference opener at Creighton. Villanova is also poised to break its shooting slump at home after going a combined 10-50 from three-point range over its last two games. For the Musketeers to win on the road, they’ll need to attack the Wildcats’ lack of shot blocking at the front of the rim and feed Jack Nunge until he burps. The Iowa transfer is averaging 19 points and 11.3 rebounds over his last three games.

UConn/Marquette
A really good Big East team is going to be 0-2 in league play after this game tonight in Milwaukee. Both the Huskies and Golden Eagles lost their respective conference openers on Saturday in games that they each could have won against Providence and Xavier. This is going to be the norm for the entire Big East this season. Expect a lot of games that are tied at 60 with three or four minutes to play. This is the deepest that the conference has been since realignment.

Kansas’ first true road game
You never really know just how good a team is until it plays in a hostile environment. That’s what the Jayhawks will endure tonight in Boulder. Kansas (9-1) technically won a road game at St. John’s a few weeks ago in the Big East-Big 12 Battle, but that game was played at UBS Arena and not on campus. Tonight’s game at Colorado will be different. The Buffaloes are off to a 9-3 start, but don’t have any wins of significance on their resume. The surroundings in Boulder won’t be anything new for Remy Martin, who played against Colorado for four years while he was at Arizona State prior to transferring to Kansas. Martin averaged 10.9 points in seven previous games against the Buffaloes.

On The Side

  • Auburn’s Allen Flanigan (achilles) is “close” to returning to action, Bruce Pearl said on Monday’s College Hoops Today Podcast. The 6-6 Flanigan is the Tigers’ best returning player and averaged 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds last season. “He’s really close to returning,” Pearl said. “He could play Wednesday against Murray State.”
  • Michigan State (9-2) has won 19 straight games against in-state rival Oakland entering tonight’s neutral site matchup in Detroit. The Golden Grizzlies (7-3) — who are currently ranked 60th in the NET — are hopeful for an upset. Greg Kampe has been Oakland’s head coach since 1984.
  • Creighton freshman Ryan Nembhard (12.7 points, 4.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds) has been a revelation for the Bluejays, but he’s got to take better care of the ball if this team is going to challenge for an NCAA Tournament berth. Nembhard had 10 total turnovers in games last week against Villanova and Arizona State.
  • Ole Miss freshman Daeshun Ruffin is back from a hand injury and that may wind up being bad news for the rest of the SEC. The 5-9 guard has scored 31 points in 30 minutes during his first two games back and has gotten to free throw line 18 times during that span. Remember the name.
  • At 10-2, Monmouth is off to its best start in program history. The Hawks have already won buy games at both Cincinnati and St. Joe’s. This is the best team that King Rice has had since Monmouth won a combined 55 games from 2015-17.

Daily Specials

  • Davidson/Alabama (Birmingham)
  • Xavier at Villanova
  • UConn at Marquette
  • Michigan State/Oakland (Detroit)
  • Kansas at

Leftovers