Durham To Miss 2009 Season

Football

Georgia wide receiver Kris Durham will miss the 2009 season due to a shoulder injury and will redshirt during the upcoming campaign, head coach Mark Richt announced in his post-practice media session on Wednesday.

"Kris will have surgery in May and will redshirt and not play this season," Richt said. "It's a decision we all think is in his best interest. He wants to make sure his senior year is a good, strong, healthy one. It's really a six-month recovery time before you can go and train at full speed. That would be a tight window to be ready. If he didn't have the option to redshirt and have a fifth year, the decision might be different."

Durham, a 6-5, native of Calhoun, Ga., has torn the labrum in his left shoulder. He has recorded 32 receptions in 36 games played in his first three seasons with the Dawgs. Durham started four of 10 games played as a junior, posting 13 catches for 199 yards including a 61-yard touchdown catch against Georgia Southern. Durham, who was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III first team in 2008, missed three games last season due to ankle and hand injuries.

Basketball

University of Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox on Wednesday announced the addition of Kwanza Johnson ­and Philip Pearson ­as Assistant Coaches on his new staff.

Johnson, 37, had spent the previous three seasons coaching along side Fox as an assistant for the Wolf Pack program. In his first year there, his work with the Nevada frontcourt players helped forward Nick Fazekas earn first-team All-America honors and his third Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year honor. The next year Johnson worked with big man JaVale McGee, who was an All-WAC selection and the 18th player chosen in the 2008 NBA Draft (Washington Wizards).

Pearson, 38, has spent 16 of the past 20 years representing the Alabama program, either as a player or coach. Most recently, he served as the Crimson Tide's interim head coach for the final 13 games of the 2009 season, winning six of them, including a first-round contest in the SEC Tournament.

Baseball

Joey Lewis hit two home runs including a grand slam in the bottom of the third to lead Georgia to a 13-2 win over Winthrop as the fifth-ranked Bulldogs split a doubleheader with the Eagles Wednesday at Foley Field. Winthrop won the first game 7-4.

Softball

Seventh-ranked Georgia defeated the 22nd-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 7-5, at the UGA Softball Stadium on Wednesday afternoon in front of a season-high home crowd of 1,095.