Hoops Housekeeping: PJ Hairston upgraded to questionable

The most pressing injury news of the day involves PJ Hairston.

North Carolina's hired gun off the bench injured his wrist in the Heel's win over Wisconsin on Wednesday night. Originally, it looked like the injury was bad enough that it was going to keep Hairston out of Saturday's showdown with Kentucky. Earlier today, Hairston tweeted "Sorry to say, but I will not be playing Saturday."

But as an hour ago, his status was updated to questionable. Jeff Goodman tweeted out that Hairston only sprained his wrist, and that there would be a chance that he could see the floor this weekend.

Hairston comes off the bench for the Heels, averaging 12 minutes per game and hitting 14-31 from beyond the arc. If Hairston doesn't play, expect sophomore Reggie Bullock to see more time. Bullock has hit 11-25 from three this year.


DeWayne Dedmon has a stress fracture in his foot: USC's sophomore JuCo transfer was supposed to be the next big thing for the Trojans, but his season has been derailed by injuries.

After breaking his hand in the middle of October and missing much of the preseason, the seven-footer suffered a stress fracture in his foot and will be sidelined for the next 4-6 weeks.

"It's not like it's at the end of the season where I can't finish out the season," Dedmon told the LA Times on Tuesday. "I can hopefully be back before conference." The Pac-12 kicks off on Dec. 29th.

7'1" junior James Blasczyk will start in place of Dedmon, while sophomore forward Garrett Jackson will see his minutes increased as well. But the guy that will be expected to to shoulder the bulk of Dedmon's workload is Iowa transfer Aaron Fuller, who is currently averaging 13.9 ppg.


Michael Eric to miss more than a month: The hot starts by both Xavier and St. Louis have put Temple's chances at winning the Atlantic 10 in doubt.

Those chances took a bigger hit on Wednesday when the team announced that Michael Eric, the Owl's starting center that was averaging 10.5 ppg, 11.3 rpg and 2.0 bpg on the season, will be out for up to six weeks after aggravating the patella injury that ended his 2010-2011 season.

Eric sat out when Temple lost to Bowling Green over the weekend, and in his place Anthony Lee, a freshman, went for 11 points and nine boards. But for a team with minimal depth in its front court in the first place, losing their best big man is a major blow.


Erik Murphy's injury not as bad as thought: The Gators got some great news this week when it was announced that their junior big man would only be out for a week.

And while they will be without Murphy on Friday night when they travel to take on Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, Murphy could be back in the lineup as soon as Dec. 7th, when Florida hosts Arizona.

"The meniscus tear was from when he hurt it his sophomore year in high school," Florida head coach Billy Donovan told CBSSports.com. "It looks like this was just a bone bruise."


Oregon loses another freshman: Little more than a week after it came out that Jabari Brown had left the Oregon program, fellow freshman Bruce Barron left the team as well. Barron played just 21 minutes in the last three games after missing the early part of the season due to a concussion.

"We'll move forward with the 13 players we have on the team," UO coach Dana Altman said. "I'm not going to talk anymore about guys not on the team. We’ll just move on from here."


Three more Quinnipiac players arrested: Back in mid-September, James Johnson and Ike Azotam were arrested for an on-campus brawl. Three more players -- Jamee Jackson, Nate Gause, and David Johnson -- were arrested on Thursday. And according to NBC Connecticut, that brawl was a doozy:

Police have charged a total of five of Quinnipiac University's 16 basketball players in connection with the attack, in which one student suffered a bruised jaw, cracked tooth and a laceration to the face that required 17 stitches. A second student suffered a broken nose, which required surgery. A third student was allegedly knocked unconscious and a fourth student suffered facial injuries.