Hoops Housekeeping: Gibbs loses the bow tie, CCU loses another starter

Corey Stokes: Villanova's sharpshooting senior injured his toe on January 29th against Georgetown, but he has been unable to get the toe healthy. As a result, the timeline for his return has fluctuated. (Sound familiar, Duke fans?) It was thought he would be able to play Monday against Syracuse, but it is looking more and more like that is not going to happpen.

"We're committed to doing whatever it takes to get him right," head coach Jay Wright said. "It's his senior year, and we don't want him playing the rest of his senior year hurt.

"We know that within two weeks at the most it should be completely healed. Two weeks from now, that would be the longest, so we’re committed to that."


Ashton Gibbs: Pitt's leading scorer will be back on Saturday as the Panthers head to the Garden. Pitt made it official yesterday.

"I feel good," Gibbs said. "It's not sore or anything. It feels normal. It's close to 100 percent. I can feel it a little bit, but it's nothing major at all. It's definitely close to 100 percent. I'll just keep taking it day by day, rest it, ice it and keep playing on it."

This is good news for Pitt, who will need Gibbs' shooting and ball handling against an aggressive St. John's team, but hurts college basketball fans everywhere. That bow tie was legendary:


Desmond Holloway: So much for Coastal Carolina's season. Having already lost Mike Holmes (kicked off the team for fighting) and Kierre Greenwood (torn acl), the Chanticleers will now be without leading scorer Desmond Holloway as he has been declared ineligible.

"There's an athletic eligibility issue involving Desmond, and we had to rule him ineligible," athletic director Hunter Yurachek said. "We have started the reinstatement process with the NCAA. In order to protect the integrity of that process, there's really not any comments I can make further until the entire issue has been resolved."

Losing three starters -- including your two best scorers -- in the span of a month is devastating for one of the best low-major programs in the country. So much for the possibility of an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Now, CCU is going to have to fight hard just to win their at-large bid.


Scott Suggs: Washington's best three point shooter had to leave their game against Arizona State on Thursday night just three minutes in after spraining his mcl. No word yet on the severity of the injury or the length of time he will be out.


Michael Eric: Temple's center fractured his right patella in an injury in practice on Tuesday. He will be out for the rest of the season.

"That's pretty devastating for a young guy," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "You don't worry about the team. The team has this resiliency about them. You worry about the kid."