- Drexel appeared to be on the verge of putting together an excellent season as they started 4-2 with their only losses being close games against Arizona (four-point margin) and UCLA (five-point margin), but their hopes for being a March sleeper took a huge hit yesterday when they announced that Damion Lee, their leading scorer last season at 17.1 points per game, was out for the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Lee sustained the injury in the second half of the team’s loss to Arizona, a game in which the Dragons held a 19-point lead at one time. This is the second straight season that Drexel has lost a significant player to a season-ending injury as last year they lost Chris Fouch to a season-ending knee injury as well (Fouch is playing as a sixth-year senior now).
- It appears that Drexel was not the only team to lose a significant player to a knee injury over Thanksgiving break as Houston announced that sophomore guard Danuel House would be out indefinitely after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Unlike Lee, House is expected to return this season although the school did not set a timetable for his return. The injury is still a big blow as House was averaging 15.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season albeit while shooting an atrocious 37.9% from the field. Fortunately for the Cougars, they do have a relatively light stretch before their schedule gets noticeably tougher starting on New Year’s Eve when they face Connecticut.
- Despite their tough loss at Connecticut last night Florida appears to have the pieces to make be a legitimate Final Four threat if they can get everybody healthy and on the court at the same time. It is beginning to look more and more like that will not be the case. While they are still waiting to hear back about some major eligibility and injury issues, it appears that they will redshirt Rutgers transfer Eli Carter who is still recovering from a broken leg. Although the injury occurred in February, Carter, who was averaging 14.9 points per game at Rutgers before the injury, has played sparingly for the Gators this season as he has only played 53 minutes this season. The loss might be considered a big blow for the Gators who are now looking for a point guard after Scottie Wilbekin went down with a knee injury late in the loss last night, but the decision to redshirt Carter should not come as a surprise to those who have followed his recovery.
- We finally have a break in the North Carolina academic fraud scandal and someone has been charged with a felony for his actions. No, it is not an administrator. Instead, it is Julius Nyang’Oro, the former chairman of the much-maligned Department of African and Afro-American Studies at North Carolina. Yesterday, a grand jury indicted Nyang’Oro on a single felony count of obtaining property under false pretenses for accepting $12,000 for a course that had no classes. According to the university, the were able to recoup the money in his final paycheck. If convicted, Nyang’Oro faces up to 30 months in prison [Ed. Note: The AP story says 10 months.] so perhaps the most interesting aspect of the case will be if he tries to work out a deal with the prosecution to testify against the school and/or administrators being complicit in the fraud as a means to avoid jail time.
- Usually when Gary Parrish publishes a Poll Attack it typically features a writer we have either never heard of or are simply unfamiliar with. This week is a little different as he uses the space to inform us that an individual we are very familiar with, former Maryland coach Gary Williams, has an AP vote. We had heard about Williams’ new job working with Comcast Sports Network, but we had no idea that he had received a vote basically at the same time he started his new job. Unfortunately, Williams appears to have missed the results of Xavier’s games and Memphis’ victory over Oklahoma State, but like Parrish we will give Williams a break since he is new to this.