Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Duell Back, Franklin Back in Starting Lineup?

Junior Josh Duell showed off his new mouthpiece at Wednesday's practice, which he said he will have to wear for the rest of his career.

That's not the only new addition to his mouth. Duell said he had a titanium rod put in as well as a temporary tooth.

He also said he's lost some weight adding he can't eat hard foods yet, but Siena coach Fran McCaffery was happy with how Duell looked. He should be back in the mix against Manhattan tomorrow.

Sophomore Alex Franklin played in both games this past weekend and said before Thursday's practice, he's around 90%.

"I'm ready to give a full contribution to the team now, said Franklin, who scored 12 points against Niagara and nine against Canisius.

McCaffery said the sophomore forward will not start on Thursday, but will return to the lineup, meaning either senior Tay Fisher or freshman Ryan Rossiter will have to return to the bench, something Fisher said wouldn't be a problem.

"I'm happy to have him back first of all," Fisher said. "Ryan and I, we've both been playing really well, but if Alex comes back in, it doesn't really matter to us, especially to me because I know Alex is one of our best players."

An interesting note on one of the Jaspers players, freshman guard Chris Smith is the brother of J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets.

The Millstone, N.J. native is averaging 8.8 points off of the bench in six games this season.

"He's real athletic," said junior co-captain Kenny Hasbrouck, who will likely cover Smith on the floor. "He can jump out of the gym, he's a driver."

One interesting visitor to Wednesday's practice was Saratoga Springs junior Jordan Stevens. Stevens has a broken hand and is missing about one more month, but is one of the top players in Section II and is actively being pursued by UAlbany as well as some other pretty big Division I schools.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home