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The Breakfast Buffet: Zach Edey, North Carolina’s lack of outside shooting, the Big East officially goes through UConn

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

Zach Edey is the early favorite to be National Player of the Year
This is ONLY December, but Edey is starting to separate himself from the rest of his competition. The 7-4 center scored 31 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in Sunday night’s win over Minnesota and continues to put up “video game like numbers”. Through eight games, Edey is averaging 23.2 points, 12.8 rebounds, and two blocks while shooting 60.8 percent from the field. That’s utterly ridiculous. The rest of college basketball is officially chasing Edey for the sport’s most prestigious award.

North Carolina’s lack of outside shooting is an achilles heel
There’s a lot of reasons why the Tar Heels are 5-4. One of them is their inability to make outside shots. During North Carolina’s four-game losing streak, the Tar Heels are just 18-76 (23.7 percent) from three-point range. In six NCAA Tournament games last spring, North Carolina was 33.9 percent from long distance and averaged 9.2 made three-point shots per game, over double its average over the last four games (4.5). I’ll say it again: It’s looking more and more like Brady Manek was not a “replaceable” piece for this basketball team.

The Big East officially goes through UConn
Nebraska’s upset of Creighton on Sunday in Omaha has officially paved the way for the Huskies to be viewed as the league favorites entering conference play. UConn has won its first nine games by an average of 24.2 points and has clearly played better throughout the first month of the season than any other team in the Big East. Dan Hurley’s squad will visit Florida on Wednesday and then host LIU before beginning league play on Dec. 17th against Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

On The Side

  • This is the first time that Gonzaga (5-3) has had three losses in the first half of December since the 2015-16 season. The Bulldogs still have games remaining this month against Washington and Alabama. Mark Few’s squad will host Kent State (6-2) — who nearly won a few weeks ago at Houston — tonight in Spokane.
  • Alabama freshman Noah Clowney isn’t getting a great deal of attention because of Brandon Miller (19.1 points, 8.9 rebounds), but he quietly looks like one of the best freshmen in the SEC. The 6-10 Clowney had 22 points and nine rebounds in Saturday’s win over South Dakota State and is averaging 8.6 points and eight rebounds.
  • Since the 2019-20 season, Rutgers is 10-3 at the RAC against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25.
  • An underrated part of UNLV’s 8-0 start? Three of the Runnin Rebels’ top five scorers — EJ Harkless (14.5 points), Luis Rodriguez (11.9 points), and Elijah Parquet (5.9 points) — are in their fifth season of college basketball.
  • One thing that I didn’t think I’d be writing in December? Duquesne and Fordham are currently a combined 15-2.

Daily Specials

  • Albany at UMass
  • Kent State at Gonzaga
  • Troy at San Diego State
  • North Dakota State at Portland

Leftovers