Sounds like we won't have a healthy roster until February after these guys go through rehab. Anything before that would seem to be a bonus.

I wish we could have him back for Iona. Will the real Ellis Dozier please stand up?

At this level there is a lot more stress and pounding than you think, especially for bigs who do not have big natural bodies or have not developed muscular structure for their size.

So I missed it, how bad is Mickle’s injury???

Or the fact that these kids go year round playing AAU, High School, training sessions, etc. while their bodies may just not be mature enough to handle the pounding.

One of my college professors had an interesting theory on this. He thinks that more injuries are happening now because kids are becoming too specialized in sports at a young age. Rarely do you see a three-sport athlete anymore, because at some point the kid is told they need to decide on which one will take them places.

Anyway, you use a different skill set for your body in different sports. So he always had the thought that kids' bodies get too complacent when doing the same motions over and over again. And when something new is introduced, the body can't react properly and injuries happen.

Not to take this too far off topic, I just read that phenom Michael Porter, Jr. is out for the season (back surgery) after giving Missouri two minutes of playing time. Ouch.

The problem is that that's not the mindset anymore. At least around here even the high schools are now playing year round. They have their regular season with the school then Spring, Summer and Fall seasons with teams that are considered travel teams but are made up exclusively of kids from that school. They play in the "AAU" circuit around here in the Spring and Fall and the HS Summer Leagues. The Juniors and most Sophomores play on the "varsity" teams in the three seasons. Freshman and incoming 8th graders play on the "JV" teams. You can play other sports but you better be darned good because a kid who doesn't play other sports may jump up and take your spot. Tryouts now aren't really tryouts because the coaches already know all the kids very well.

Thant's pretty well documented over the years. I suspect the DC area state assns are a bit different than the IHSAA, OHSAA,IHSA and midwest assns.

Ourside your immediate area there in Athens and the athletes you come in contact with in SEO are there a plethora of basketball athletes that do not specialize too early and Coaches that do not fight over football or basketball athletes? The midwest still seems to have a large number of HS communities with multi sport athletes but are the guys playing Club ball and pursuing hoops scholarships at OBC, All Ohio Red or any of those still doing multi sports?

I think we wrestle with that in IN at an early age. Coaches have 2 a days going in FB and Hoops coaches are still watching if they show up for Open Gym. Tommy's track coach let him miss meets that conflicted with Saturday AAU events. Happy to have a hurdler on the days he was not in AR, NC, TX .

I saw a mom from Muncie who has been shopping her child to Indy schools since 5th grade the other day. Anyone who has spent time at an AAU type event has met the "Mahh baby gon be the nexxxx LayBron" Mom. She WILL NOT hear of him playing FB, Baseball PERIOD....saying "bassbaw gonbe his money and make us rich". Thats not on coaches. That's flat out cultural.

No, you missed the point, my post is not about specialization, but rather the seemingly year round team play that is a big no-no in Ohio. Ohio, has a 50% rule in out of season competition. This year alone over 60 schools have forfeited contest and athletes suspended for violation of said rules.

That being said, we have plenty of people in SEO who believe their kids are going pro or DI, and there is no lack of a cottage industry of pimping mom and dad with the promise of getting the child to the promised land.

In OHIO, does not matter who coaches, kids who are in grades covered by OHSAA juristication and by members schools, are limited to 50% membership from the same school. And the 50% figure is figured off the number of starters in the given sport. So on an AAU basketball team only 2 members can be from the same high school, Volleyball is 3 players, Soccer is 5 players, etc.

I did miss that point. It is valid and our IHSAA rules make the limit 3 per school...like Van said though....I do not think the assn's out east or west have the same approach as the midwest consortiums.

And this is a recent (last 25 years) concession. In volleyball you used to have to submit a JO waiver form to play on a club team. Very few kids played until things exploded in the 90s.