1. Billy Donovan is joining the Florida Gators. No, we didn’t flash back to 1996 when the elder statesman of the SEC moved to Gainesville to coach the Gators. We’re talking about Donovan’s son, Billy Donovan, who has joined UF as a walk-on. The elder Donovan is excited about having his son around. “It’s going to be great to have Billy here, both for our team and for our family,” said the head coach. “I always want to be supportive and put him in a position to succeed, and hope this will be a great experience for him.” The younger Donovan spent the last two seasons playing for Division III Catholic University where he averaged 5.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. He scored a team high 13 points playing against dear old dad when Catholic played an exhibition game against the Gators last season.
2. Kansas coach Bill Self might be jumping the shark a bit, but he’s hoping his Jayhawks get a chance to face the newest SEC member, Missouri, in basketball sooner than anticipated. But Self recognizes that game won’t come during the regular season. While speaking at the Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser on Tuesday, he pointed out that the NCAA Selection Committee might be interested in pairing the rivals together. “The NCAA Selection Committee has a strange sense of humor,” Self said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it does happen because they are going to be really good in basketball and hopefully we’ll continue to be OK.” If Self truly believed Kansas was just OK, somehow we don’t believe he would be so eager to face off with Frank Haith’s Tigers.
3. New Mississippi State coach Rick Ray is looking for leadership anywhere he can find it, and he hinted that freshman shooting guard Craig Sword could end up playing some point guard this season for the Bulldogs. After a season-ending injury to point guard Jacoby Davis, Mississippi State needs a warm body to run the team.“For Chicken, he’s going to be on the court because he’s a talented kid,” Ray said regarding Sword. “The big thing we want to do with Chicken is not take away his enthusiasm to make plays and go score.” Wait, who’s he calling “Chicken?” Stay tuned for a news post with a follow-up on the story behind that one. During the summer, Sword was arrested in a residence hall for possession of a firearm. As far as we can tell, no livestock were harmed in the incident.
4. The Bama hoops blog equipped with the most creative of blog names, Alabama Basketball Blog, has a writeup previewing the entire Crimson Tide schedule. The previews, all worth a read, are divided up into months, but one particular entry caught our eye as shocking. Bama goes into Memorial Gym on February 2 for a conference road game with the inexperienced Vanderbilt Commodores, and it is somewhat of a must-win game. The Tide haven’t won at Vanderbilt since 1990. We’ve never been very good at math, but that’s a really long time ago. Vandy is entering what could be a down year after losing its top six scorers from last season, making this the Tide’s best chance to win in Memorial in… well… a really long time. But do the Crimson Tide have the firepower to win a big one on the road? Last season, even with JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell leading the way, Alabama was only 4-6 on the road for the season.
5. In a preview of guard play for the Ole Miss Rebels, the Clarion Ledger established some high expectations for coach Andy Kennedy. Before launching into some advanced statistics on Jarvis Summers, the CL says, “The expectation is clear: this team must make the NCAA Tournament. It is Ole Miss’ best chance in years to finally make it back to the Dance.”  The Rebels have no major additions to almost the same team that couldn’t make it out of the first round of the NIT last season. Ole Miss hasn’t made the Big Dance since 2002. In fact, the Rebs have only made the Tournament six times in their entire history. What makes this the year?  An NCAA berth or bust mentality may be a lofty goal for a team that did not have a single quality win a season ago. Kennedy’s club was 1-7 against RPI top 50 opponents. It will surely take a major swing in the category to move the needle in March.

Brian Joyce is a writer for the SEC microsite and regular contributor for Rush The Court. Follow him on Twitter for more about SEC basketball at bjoyce_hoops.

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