The Ole Miss basketball team will be without sophomore forward Terry Brutus for the 2013-14 season, as Ole Miss announced that Brutus has torn the ACL in his left knee.
Brutus didn’t see significant action in the early part of last season, but once Aaron Jones, now a junior, went out for the year with a torn ACL, and Demarco Cox, now a senior, was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his left foot, Brutus saw an uptick in minutes.
Jones tore his ACL against Kentucky, and in the next 12 games, Brutus averaged 13.1 minutes per game. The main function Brutus played last season was filling in for Murphy Holloway or Reggie Buckner when they got in foul trouble.
Brutus didn’t shoot very much, less than once per game, but he was 16 of 25 from the field. He mainly set screens and shot only when wide open near the basket as Brutus had the lowest usage rate on the team last season at 7.29 percent. He also grabbed 10.41 percent of available rebounds. In a small sample size, Brutus posted the third best defensive points per possession for Ole Miss. He allowed .67 points per possession to opponents, per Synergy Sports. Opponents shot just 27.3 percent (12 of 44) against Brutus last year.
Ole Miss will have to deal with depth and inexperience for the second straight year in the post. As Holloway and Buckner graduated, Jones and Cox will be the only big men with experience. Freshmen forwards Sebastian Saiz and Dwight Coleby will be in line for immediate playing time down low. Sophomore Anthony Perez did play some post last season, due to the injuries, but head coach Andy Kennedy would like to keep him on the wing.
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