One issue has eluded Siena head coach Jimmy Patsos from having a complete roster through 15 games this year.
Since taking the team to Montreal the Saints have dealt with players being out as early as late August when Evan Hymes suffered a broken right hand of the fifth metacarpal in an exhibition game. The junior Hymes could not practice the first five weeks of the season.
Junior Rob Poole could not practice for the first two weeks of the season and did not practice between conference games this past week between Monmouth and Rider. Freshman Javion Ogynemi took a hard spill against St. Bonaventure and missed seven games.
Patsos said he has struggled to find the typical eight or nine players he likes to play because of how the injuries have impacted the team.
“Maurice White is hurt right now, Rob Poole is sick, Michael Wolfe missed a game,” Patsos said. “We have had a very interesting run. I have 10 guys that can play, Rich Audu has been out twice with a bad ankle. I have 10 possible guys to play, the most I’ve had healthy at any one time is seven, and that’s okay.”
“We’ve had seven or eight of those 10 guys at most healthy. We have a chance, after this week, to get some guys healthy. I’m interested to see how that goes, that’s how you have depth; have 7 or 8 guys healthy is different than 10 because if somebody messes up, someone is a better matchup then I can pick my eight out of the 10.”
For this weekend Patsos said that freshman White and sophomore Audu are “are basically out for this weekend” and that Poole “has been limping around a little.”
Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference and Hofstra for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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