The Morning Dish – Saturday, December 18th
The Walking Wounded: As the season begins to approach conference play, teams are starting to suffer a variety of injuries. It is cliche, but it is often the teams that can withstand these injuries, or avoid them all together, that end up being the most successful.
UCLA’s Dijon Thompson, who has missed a week of practice with a hand injury is expected to play limited minutes when Michigan visits town today.
Wake Forest junior center Eric Williams is also likely to see limited minutes Saturday after leaving the team’s last game with a high ankle sprain.
Former Syracuse starter Demetris Nichols will continue to see limited action from the bench with a back injury. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim generally lets the players decide how much pain they can endure, but it seems Nichols is sufferring significantly. Syracuse’s Terrance Roberts has also been sufferring with an injury. He missed the Orange’s last game with an injury to his non-shooting hand, but is confident that he’ll play today against Binghamton.
For today’s big Kentucky/Louisville matchuip, neither coach is too eager to indicate which players are going to be available. We do know that Louisville will play junior forward Otis George. The 6-foot-8 spark from the bench was sidelined with an injured foot. Kentucky is much more vague about its injury situation, saying that it might play forward Sheray Thomas, who has been sidelined the entire year to date. The Wildcats, desperate for inside help, may use Thomas today after he missed time with an undisclosed ailment.
RPI Calculation Change: The NCAA has announced that it is changing the way it calculates the Ratings Percentage Index. It is now going to give more weight to playing and winning road games. A long overdue change, the RPI will now reward teams that can win outside of their home arena. The NCAA began using the RPI as a tool for selection and seeding in 2000.
Watch Your Mouth: Wake Forest senior Vytas Danelius was banished to the bench Wednesday for utterring a profanity during his team’s game against Elon. A frustrated and aggravated Skip Prosser sent Danelius to the locker room and has made no guarantees that Danelius will start, or even play, today against Texas.
Xavier to Try Zone: The Xavier Musketeers are out of answers defensively. So, they’re going to try playing a little zone. The 2-3 Musketeers have allowed opponents to shoot 46.1 percent per game this year. Head coach Sean Miller is going to mix it up defensively against Mississippi State today. Miller is hoping the zone will frustrate MSU, which is shooting just 31.5 percent from three-point range and relies offensively on primarily inside players, including All-American Lawrence Roberts.
Forth’s Jersey Retired: Syracuse senior center Craig Forth was allowed to miss practice this week to attend a ceremony at his high school where they retired Forth’s jersey. His No. 00 jersey was the first jersey retired in Columbia High School (East Greenbush) history.
Local Kid May Play for SDSU: Former Rancho Bernardo High star Muhamed Akubar is considering playing for San Diego State after getting a release from his scholarship from the University of Florida this week. The 6-foot-10 sophomore forward played sparingly for the Gators, but was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team. He averaged more than 27 points per game in high school and would give the Aztecs the athletic big man that they covet.
Southern Miss Guard Leaves Team: Solomon Brown, described as the Golden Eagles’ floor leader, left the team this week. Coach Larry Eustachy said Brown has been dealing with some family issues and needed some time to sort through his issues. The Los Angeles native stayed through the semester to finish finals and is not in any academic trouble. It is likely that Brown will not return to the team.
Academics Sidelines Cal Poly Player: Junior point guard Kameron Gray will not play the rest of this season, and perhaps never again, for Cal Poly because of academic issues. Gray’s academic problems will cost him a year of eligibility and it is possible that the University will chose to expel him for continued under-performance.
East Carolina Gains Transfer: Jeremy Ingram, a 6-foot-3 guard, chose East Carolina as his destination after leaving Wake Forest. Ingram will be eligible to practice with the team during the Spring 2005 semester, but will not be eligible to play until the Spring 2006 semester. He has 2 1/2 years of eligibility remaining. Ingram was a 2003 McDonald’s All American finalist but received little playing time at Wake Forest behind star guard Chris Paul.
Hodge Declares Himself Best Player: It seems as if nobody likes himself better than North Carolina State’s Julius Hodge. After scoring a basket earlier this year, Hodge struck the Heisman pose, and admitted afterward that he believes that he is the best player in college basketball. The not-so-modest Hodge does rank in the Top 10 in four different offensive categories in the ACC. Hodge squares off against Washington and its star Nate Robinson Sunday. Although the pair is unlikely to guard each other, they’ll certainly be trying to out-play each other.
Hawaii Coach Receives Stent: Hawaii coach Riley Wallace had a stent inserted this week into an artery that was 90 percent blocked. He missed two days of practice but is now back at the helm of the undefeated Rainbows. He had a similar procedure performed in 1998 and says he is feeling fine.
