1. Wednesday brought great news for the Florida Gators as forward Erik Murphy will not require surgery on his injured knee. “The meniscus tear was from when he hurt it his sophomore year in high school,” coach Billy Donovan said. “It looks like this was just a bone bruise. We’re hoping to have him back in a week to 10 days.” Murphy has averaged 10 points per game for the Gators this season, and has been pivotal in pick-and-pop situations with Florida’s quick guards because of his excellent three-point shooting. He is shooting 57.1% from beyond the arc this year in 14 attempts. It appears that Murphy could play against Arizona next week on December 7.
2. The University of Alabama student newspaper points out that the Crimson Tide have won 24 straight home games in Coleman Coliseum dating back to February 27, 2010. That winning streak is in jeopardy tonight when Alabama plays Georgetown as part of the Big East/SEC Challenge. The Alabama players credit the fans with providing a home court advantage in Tuscaloosa. “Our fans have been great these last couple of games and last year coming in and giving us excitement and energy, cheering for us in and out every game,” junior forward Tony Mitchell said. The Tide and Hoyas will be one of the most exciting games of the week Win or lose, Alabama’s smothering 2-3 zone will serve as the Hoyas’ best tune-up for Syracuse’s famed 2-3 zone once Big East play begins.
3. A long scoring drought in the second half against Colorado was the nail in the coffin for the Georgia Bulldogs. The Dogs finally made their first basket of the second half with 12:34 remaining on the clock. Georgia had similar droughts of eight minutes in a loss against California and five minutes in a loss to Xavier. Two issues that could be causing the scoreless spurts for the Dogs are the reliance on outside shooting for the offense to be successful and the expectation for freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to do a majority of the scoring. Georgia needs to find another element to its offense if they are to avoid lengthy stretches without points going forward.
4. The Daily Mississippian tells the story of Ole Miss guard Maurice Aniefiok. Aniefiok grew up in Nigeria never having played basketball. He played his senior year of high school at Huntington Prep in West Virginia while developing his offensive skills. Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy has been happy with Aniefiok’s adjustment to the college game thus far. “I think first and foremost, him understanding that is a huge step,” Kennedy said of the adjustment. “His attitude is great. Day in and day out, like all of our freshmen, he wants to learn, wants to get better and gives us the necessary effort. That is one area we have not had to coach with this group: effort.” Aniefiok has had difficulty shooting thus far going 26.7% from the field and 20% from three-point range. However, Aniefiok’s limited exposure to basketball means he should be a player to keep an eye on over the next few years as he begins to develop his offensive game. Kennedy likes the 6’5″ guard’s play so much that he is playing him over 14 minutes per game so far this season.
5. A source tells Kentucky Sports Radio that Kentucky is considering a plan that would eliminate the Kentucky-North Carolina series for the immediate future. You may remember from earlier this week that John Calipari asked Big Blue Nation which rivalry the passionate fan base would like to drop from the schedule if UK felt it needed to create space for two additional SEC games (with the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M). The contract with the Tar Heels ends after the game on Saturday, and the Cats apparently would like to take a year off from the series and revisit renewing the series at a later point. A quick glance at the comments section of the article on KSR reveals that Kentucky fans are not exactly thrilled with the potential move. Saturday’s match-up between Kentucky and North Carolina doesn’t need any more hype as Lexington will be rocking regardless.

Brian Joyce (333 Posts)

Brian Joyce is an advanced metrics enthusiast, college hoops junkie, and writer for the SEC basketball microsite for Rush the Court.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 6:30 am by Brian Joyce and is filed under microsites, sec. Tagged: alabama, andy kennedy, billy donovan, erik murphy, florida, john calipari, kentucky, maurice aniefiok, ole miss, tony mitchell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.