Gomis Goes Down Again

Daniel Gomis has got to be the most unlucky Beaver ever. The Oregon State senior had to wait 2 years to start his career with the Beavers' men's basketball program due to breaking a leg twice. He also had to battle back from a broken nose last year. Gomis might also be one of the toughest Beavers ever too, having fought back from all of those setbacks.

It's a good thing, because he has yet another fracture to overcome. Gomis broke his left hand Monday in practice, and head coach Wayne Tinkle said today that the prognosis is that it will take 6-8 weeks before Gomis will be ready. That will be around the time of Oregon State's visit to Kansas, or possibly the Far West Classic the following weekend, at the earliest, and its not out of the question that the entire non-conference campaign will be complete before Gomis gets back on the court, come the conference season.

This latest injury leaves the Beavers with only 11 healthy players going into tomorrow night's open scrimmage at 6 PM.

Senior forward Jarmal Reid is already out for several more weeks, recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot, and that 7' junior center Cheikh N'diaye is still rehabbing a shoulder injury.

Freshman guard Kendal Manuel is also out for 2 to 3 months, after breaking the fibula in his right leg last week, and had surgery last Thursday.

And walk-on Daine Muller is considered "day-to-day", according to Tinkle.

After it was expected that there would be much better depth than last year's squad that not only had 5 walk-ons on the roster, all 5 played in conference contests with regularity. Could Tinkle need to consider bringing Dylan Livesay or A.J. Hedgecock back, if for no other reason than to have practice bodies?

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com