VERY IMPORTANT NEWS & NOTES FROM COLLEGE BASKETBALL!
By Bob Acton of
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Fasten your seatbelts folks as the wild and wonderful ride knownas college basketball is just getting revved up. There will behighs and lows as we sort out the numerous conferences and finallyget things whittled down to the Final 64 teams. March Madnesswill be a wacky as ever and then we will wrap thing s up at theRCA dome on the first weekend in April.
Villanova was to return four starters to Jay Wright’s team butforward Curtis Sumpter had surgery Tuesday to repair a ligamentin his left knee that he tore last month in practice.
Sumpter, a second-team All-Big East selection last season, torehis ACL on Oct. 19 and will be sidelined indefinitely. It wasthe second time in seven months Sumpter had surgery to repairthe same torn ACL.
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His injury is a serious blow to the fifth-rankedWildcats, who have serious Final Four aspirations. Sumpter finishedthird on the team in scoring with a 15.3 average. Besides beingVillanova's only legitimate presence in the post, Sumpter's versatileenough to swing out and play well from the perimeter, shooting43 percent from 3-point range (39-for-90) last season.
High-scoring Purdue guard David Teague will missthe season with a torn ligament in his left knee. The 6-foot-5player, who averaged 14 points and 5.5 rebounds last season forthe Boilermakers, will be eligible to return as a fifth-year seniorin 2006-07, the team said Wednesday.
Teague was hurt at practice Monday and the extentof the injury was determined by a specialist in Indianapolis onTuesday, coach Matt Painter said. The Boilermakers open the seasonSaturday night at home against Wofford.
Ohio State point guard Jamar Butler and backupcenter Matt Terwilliger were suspended for the Nov. 20 openeragainst Chicago State for playing in a charity three-on-threetournament last spring near their hometowns.
They took part at an event at a YMCA in Kenton,violating an NCAA rule limiting organized competitions in whichplayers can compete outside their college season.
Butler started the final 12 games last season.Terwilliger will back up center Terence Dials for the second straightyear.
Butler and Terwilliger will be eligible to returnNov. 22 against Butler.
Be careful playing the Hoosiers early in theseason as injuries to A.J. Ratliff and D.J. White will leave avery thin bench for coach Mike Davis.
Miami point guard Anthony Harris will miss threeto six weeks with a hairline fracture of his right foot. He'llbe sidelined for at least five games, but could be back in timefor the Hurricanes to open their Atlantic Coast Conference seasonat North Carolina State on Dec. 19.
Harris started 28 of Miami's 29 games last season,averaging 12.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and a team-best 4.6 assists.He ranked fifth in the ACC in assists, and was eighth in assist-to-turnoverratio.
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