- Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy has removed Rebels’ leading scorer Dundrecous Nelson and reserve Jamal Jones from the team for a violation of team rules. Nelson was arrested at his home on Tuesday night for possession of drug paraphernalia, while Jones admitted to smoking marijuana with Nelson. Nelson has played in all 14 games this season averaging 11.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Kennedy’s club opens SEC play at LSU on Saturday. How much will Nelson’s departure impact the Rebels, a team with their eyes set on an NCAA tournament berth this season? They are certainly in the hunt, finishing up non-conference play at 10-4 and an RPI of 47.
- Kentucky coach John Calipari agrees with us (from yesterday’s morning five) that Kentucky lawmakers surely have better things to do than worry about which teams the Wildcats schedule each year. “I would hope they (lawmakers) don’t think I need help scheduling,” Calipari said. “I hope they have more important things to do.” The Kentucky senator who wrote the bill said he was using the UK and Louisville rivalry to draw attention to more important issues in higher education such as graduation rates. So are you saying that university graduation rates are more important than basketball in the state of Kentucky? Hmmm….
- The guys over at A Sea of Blue have evaluated Kentucky’s offense during the first half of the season, and have some interesting findings. The biggest improvement in the Cats’ offensive game from the first half of the season (first eight games vs. last seven) has been in offensive rebounding. Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Eloy Vargas, and Terrence Jones have all improved their individual offensive rebounding numbers. As you probably could have guessed, Kidd-Gilchrist had the most significant gains going from 8.1 offensive rebounding percentage to 10.7 percent. In fact, he has made improvements from the first eight games in every statistical category mentioned in the evaluation. Kentucky fans are eager to see what the next half of the season will bring for the freshman phenom as he seems to be improving every game.
- The Florida Gators are still battling the injury bug. Forward Casey Prather will return to the lineup for coach Billy Donovan on Saturday against Tennessee after missing the last three games with the flu. Guard Mike Rosario, however, is not expected to play as he is still nursing a sprained ankle. Donovan wants to get his sixth man back on the court for the Gators. “We’re going to try to get him looked at by a doctor, or take an X-ray or an MRI and see if there is anything more to it than what we think it is,” Donovan said. Rosario is averaging 9 points per game off the bench for Florida this year. He has improved his shooting percentages drastically from his first two years with Rutgers. He is shooting 46% from the field and 40.7% from beyond the arc.
- Vanderbilt may be hitting its stride just in time. The Commodores are on a four-game winning streak coming into conference play, and Kevin Stallings finally feels like injured center Festus Ezeli is close to 100%. “The thing that we’re inherently more excited about than anything else is that we finally feel like we’re starting to get better and have all of our weapons available to us,” Stallings said. The Commodores have been shooting lights out from three point range over the last four games. They haven’t shot under 40% from long distance since a loss against Indiana State over two weeks ago. Since, they are shooting 45% from downtown. Vanderbilt has an easier SEC opening slate, beginning with Auburn, at South Carolina, and Georgia before traveling to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama on January 19.
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.