Latest from DD on Drew --- Not good

[gundun]

Status check

The state of Xavier:

“I don’t know when we’re going to be back to normal in terms of getting Drew healthy if he can play on the ankle,” Miller said. “We’re coaching a completely different team right now, just trying to do the best we can.”


Lavender clearly is still hobbled by the ankle sprain. He struggled with agility and and quickness Saturday night, and it's definitely not certain that he'll be ready in time for Thursday's game at Saint Joseph's.

So if you're Xavier, you have some options. You can:
A.) Announce that Lavender is going to sit out the rest of the regular-season as needed, making darn sure that the selection committee knows about it.
B.) Continue with the same plan as other games; that is put him in the starting lineup and see how he does and make adjustments from there.
C.) Have him on the bench, in uniform, and available to play if necessary.
D.) Assume he's never going to get back to 100 percent and operate on a day-to-day basis. If he can go, he can go. If he can't, he can't. Either way, the general status of the team will have to change to accomodate for Lavender's absence or limited effectiveness.

My personal suggestion is option A. If Xavier is fortunate enough to be playing in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, no one is going to remember or care if Lavender played against Saint Joseph's or Richmond -- or even in the A-10 Tournament for that matter. Though, if I were Xavier, I might want him back for at least one A-10 Tourney game to prevent atrophy from settling in.

One side note to this is that several people from players to Miller said before and after Saturday's game that Lavender had been looking very good in the limited practice time he'd had going into the game. Burrell, in fact, said he was very surprised with the way Lavender looked Saturday night after moving about so well in practice.

posted by Dustin Dow at 10:18 AM



2 Comments:
at 11:34 AM deanoxfan said...
In Miller's post game comments with Byron and Joe,he sounded a little exasperated with Drew.When asked by Byron about Drew's mnts.Miller said well,his ankle is not broken,he's been in therapy,it may be his conditioning,maybe he will play again before the season is over.This in a tone of voice that showed he was very irritated.


at 11:35 AM GTown Alum/XU Fan said...
I think most Xavier fans are in favor of option A. I can understand if Drew is never 100% for the rest of Xavier's season; ankles are tricky. But I can't understand pushing him in semi-meaningless games when he's not quite there.

Still, it doesn't add up. It's unclear as to whether it was Drew's ankle that was bothering him last night, or his illness. Stan's comment really perplexes me. I'm perplexed.

[joeybaloney]

this is SINCERE. i hope lavender comes back 100% before the ncaa's. you guys are having a great year; it would suck if he isn't back to full strength by then.