Gueye likely out for season with a torn ACL

Click the title for the sad story. He had surgery today after tearing his ACL in a pickup game Wednesday. Absolute best case scenario is that he is back in February, but it's highly doubtful he would be 100% then. I would expect him to take a medical redshirt at this point. This leaves us, once again, with very little depth in the post. Expect Tony to play more down low, and we now desperately need Nick Jacobs to step up and produce right away. Hopefully Engstrom has continued to improve and can help us at center. Best wishes to Moussa for a speedy recovery. Remember, he also missed most of his last juco season with a leg injury of some sort.

Miss St dismisses freshman guard for profane tweets

STARKVILLE – D.J. Gardner‘s tweets last night left fans scratching their heads, and now the freshman guard is headed back home.

The talented freshman was booted “permanently” from the team this morning “for repeated action deemed detrimental to the team,” according to a Mississippi State official.

MSU coach Rick Stansbury declined comment through a team spokesman.

The dismissal came just a day after the Okolona native tweeted a profanity-laced message about being red-shirted this year at MSU.

“These b***es tried to f**k me over.. That’s y I red shirted .. But I wish my homies a great as* season.. I don’t even know y I’m still here”

Click the link to read... truth be told DJ Gardner had it coming. Now I feel dirty for agreeing with Stansbury... but the kid is probably telling the truth about Stansbury and staff lying to him during recruitment.

Joy to the world: Trevor Lacey is cleared to play

The top five recruiting class that Anthony Grant and his staff signed will all be in uniform this season after the University of Alabama released a statement today confirming that Trevor Lacey has been cleared by the NCAA and will be eligible to play for the team this season.

There had been some lingering issues with Lacey's GPA and ACT score that required some work, but Lacey is now enrolled and taking classes in Tuscaloosa.

Obviously this is big news. I believe the team would have been strong with or without Lacey, but there's no denying this kid's talent and his presence may be the extra push Bama needs to win the SEC and make us very happy next March.

Arkansas' 2011-12 basketball schedule

Here

I'm going to stay away from predicting SEC records until late December when I have a better idea of what each team looks like. I'll make a prediction on their non-conference schedule... 13-2 if USC Upstate is a regular season game (12-2 if not). They got a pretty easy non conference slate with a trip to UConn as their toughest road game. Other games of note are at Oklahoma, and home to Oakland and Michigan (Jan 21st).

I for one am glad to see Mike Anderson at Arkansas... should bring SEC basketball up a notch or two.

2011-2012 Schedule released

Apparently, we were just waiting on the SEC Schedule. Click the title for the full schedule.

SEC Schedule Released

Click on the title for the complete schedule. Alabama's is below (all times Central):

Saturday, Jan.7 @ Georgia, 6pm FSN
Wednesday, Jan.11. v. LSU 8pm CSS
Saturday, Jan. 14 @M$U 3pm SEC Network
Thursday, Jan.19 v. Vandy 6pm ESPN or ESPN2
Saturday, Jan. 21 @ Kentucky 11am CBS
Wednesday, Jan. 25 @ South Carolina 7pm SEC Network
Saturday, Jan.28 v. Arkansas 12:30pm SEC Network
Saturday, Feb. 4 v. Ole Miss TBD ESPN or ESPN2
Tuesday, Feb.7 @ auburn 8pm ESPNU
Saturday, Feb.11 @LSU TBD ESPN2
Tuesday, Feb. 14 v. Florida 6pm ESPN
Saturday, Feb. 18 v. Tennessee 12:30pm SEC Network
Thursday, Feb. 23 @ Arkansas 6pm ESPN or ESPN2
Saturday, Feb. 25 v. $tate 5pm ESPN or ESPN2
Wednesday, Feb. 29 v. auburn 7pm SEC Network
Saturday, March 3, @ Ole Miss 3pm SEC Network

A few thoughts, the short turn around of playing Vandy at home Thursday night and going to Rupp arena for a Saturday morning game will be tough. In fact, that's a tough 4 game stretch early in the season, @$tate, v. Vandy, @UK, and @SC.

From my perspective, I like that we have a lot of weekend away games, I should be able to make it to all SEC games except @ South Carolina, @ Arkansas, and @ Ole Miss. I'm not crazy about the number of home, weeknight games that start at 6 (too early) or 8 (too late), but I can live with that.

Green shines in China...beats Finland

He had a game high 21 points in only 15 minutes.

From rolltide.com

And box score

JaMychal Green Selected For USA Basketball Team

USA Basketball announced their final 12-member roster this morning for the upcoming World University Games in China. Alabama's own JaMychal Green will be a member of that roster. The team will be coached by Purdue's Matt Painter with Butler's Brad Stevens and Tennessee's Cuonzo Martin serving as assistant coaches. Tony Mitchell also tried out for the team. Unfortunately, he did not make the cut.

The team departs for China on August 8th with an exhibition game on August 11th before competition begins on August 13th.

This is obviously a great opportunity for JaMychal. Not only making the team, but also having an opportunity to play against some good competition on the international stage. Hopefully, the U.S. team will be successful and every player will come home healthy and ready to compete for their respective teams.

The other members of the team include

Tim Abromatis - Notre Dame
Marcus Denmon - Missouri
Ashton Gibbs - Pittsburgh
Draymond Green - Michigan State
Scoop Jardine - Syracuse
John Jenkins - Vanderbilt
Orlando Johnson - UC Santa Barbara
Greg Mangano - Yale
Trevor Mbakwe - Minnesota
Ray McCallum - Detroit
Darius Miller - Kentucky

Piecing together the schedule...VCU

VCU is coming to Tuscaloosa on Sunday, November 27th. Tip off time has not been announced yet. This is the Sunday following the Alabama-auburn football game. This game scares me, as the Rams have a good young coach in Shaka Smart, and will be motivated against their former coach. It being Thanksgiving weekend and the day after the Iron Bowl which is played in auburn this year could mean a not-so-great home environment for us.

Puerto Rico bracket announced

Click on the title for more information. We will play Maryland in the first round at 4 pm central time on Thursday, November 17th. We get a rematch with an NIT final four opponent in the 2nd round, either Wichita State or Colorado.