Markus Kennedy Reportedly Ineligible for SMU's 1st Semester

Once viewed as a potential Top 10 team, SMU continues to plummet down the 2014-15 college basketball ranks.

According to ESPN's Jeff Goodman, Larry Brown will be without star forward Markus Kennedy for the first chunk of the season due to eligibility problems:

This is the second game-changing hit to the Mustangs roster this offseason. In July, top recruit Emmanuel Mudiay elected to forgo college and head to China to play professionally.

Before that, SMU, which lost in the NIT final last season and returned a large portion of its roster, looked like a team capable of making a deep run in March. Now, the Mustangs are reeling.

Fortunately, Kennedy should be back in time for conference play. Per SMU's website, the fall term officially ends Dec. 20, which means he would be back in time for one game before the AAC opener against South Florida.

Unfortunately, the nonconference schedule includes trips to Gonzaga (Nov. 17), Indiana (Nov. 20) and Michigan (Dec. 20), as well as a home test against Arkansas (Nov. 25).

Without Kennedy, those games become much more difficult. The Villanova transfer averaged 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks in just 25.0 minutes per game last year. An active 6'9" force on both ends of the court, he was expected to be one of the best big men in America this year.

As College Basketball Talk's Rob Dauster noted, it's tough to overstate this loss:

For as long as Kennedy is sidelined, Nic Moore will continue to shoulder the scoring load, while Cannen Cunningham and Ben Moore will pick up many of his minutes in the frontcourt.

The silver lining here is that Brown often went 10-deep last year, and this once-young roster features a lot of experience. If the Mustangs can just tread water, they may get Kennedy back in time to hit their full potential for the important stretch run.