The recent months have been up-and-down for the Georgia men’s basketball team.

Last season, the Dogs came into 2007 sporting an 8-4 record in non-conference action.

Georgia played well to start its SEC slate. The team hovered around .500 in conference play.

Then Mike Mercer tore his ACL at South Carolina in February, and the Dogs lost three of their last four conference games. Georgia won an NIT game to finish 19-14 (8-8 SEC).

Felton began preseason practice by announcing Takais Brown, Mercer and Albert Jackson would be suspended for a total of 30 games due to academic reasons.

Soon after, Brown was dismissed from the team for violating an undisclosed policy.

Nov. 14, junior guard Billy Humphrey was suspended for the Dogs’ second game due to being charged with felony possession of a weapon on campus.

The final hit came Nov. 19, when Mercer was kicked off the team for violating team policy.

This leaves Felton with two seniors and three juniors as his team’s core, and has forced him to lean on a talented class of five freshmen through the first month of the season.