Thursday, February 7, 2008

Billy Humphrey Seems Like a Great Team Player

Georgia junior guard Billy Humphrey has been suspended three games after being arrested and jailed (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) for underage consumption of alcohol. He was arrested Thursday morning after blowing a .03 on a breathylize machine; UGA athletics policy mandate that a student-athlete arrested for an alcohol-related offense miss 10 percent of his team's game schedule.

Humphrey, who has been playing on an injured left knee for much of this season, appeared very casual about the situation. "It's ironic because I sent my trainer a text message last night telling him last night's game was going to be my last one for a while," Humphrey said. "Now I don't have a choice because I'm going to be suspended anyway. Yes, it's unfortunate that it happened. Am I down about it? No, in the sense that it was going to be my last game anyway."

Head coach Dennis Felton clearly felt differently. "I was obviously alarmed and disappointed," Felton said. "I knew that we had an issue on our hands that needed to be dealt with. I'm extremely disappointed any time one of our players fails to live up to being a reliable part of our team and our family."

It was the second time Humphrey has been arrested this season, and the fifth time a Bulldog has been suspended by Felton due to off-court incidents. When asked if he felt bad about his actions, Humphrey responded: "I do and I don't. I have mixed feelings. Besides the fact it puts that negative image on our program again, like I said, I'm up and down about it."

The 6-foot-2 Humphrey is the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 13.1 points to go with 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Not surprisingly, he isn't worried about the team missing him. "Honestly, I feel like we're not losing that much because I haven't been as productive as usual due to my knee," Humphrey said. "That's part of the reason I was going to shut it down anyway."

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