Gray is not practicing due to wrist

[rocky_warrior]

Sounds like it's precautionary, but they haven't decided whether he'll play for the Marquette game yet. 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07019/755125-175.stm

Friday, January 19, 2007
By Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pitt senior center Aaron Gray did not practice yesterday, and his status for the game Sunday against Marquette will be determined today or tomorrow.

Gray has an injured right wrist, which he hurt attempting a dunk in a pregame shootaround Tuesday afternoon before Pitt's game with Connecticut. Gray scored 22 points and had 19 rebounds in Pitt's 63-54 victory against the Huskies, but it is causing him some pain. The decision was made yesterday to give it some time to heal.

Two X-rays and a magnetic resonance imaging did not show any structural damage to the wrist, and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he is hopeful that Gray will be able to practice today and play against Marquette.

"I would say he has more discomfort than pain," Dixon said. "We'll see how it goes [today]. He was able to play with it Tuesday, and he did pretty well. I don't see that it is anything serious. But we're going to see how it is [today] and go from there."

Instead of going through a regular workout with the team, Gray did conditioning on the side.

If Gray is not able to play, senior power forward Levon Kendall would step into the center position, and Tyrell Biggs and Sam Young would have to play more at power forward.

"I do that in games now when he needs a break," Kendall said. "Playing [small forward, power forward or center] is pretty seamless for me. I've been doing it for four years, so it's not that big of a deal.

"It's obviously a pretty big void to fill if Aaron can't play. Luckily, we're deep. I think we have enough guys who could compensate for that. That's fine with me. I'll play wherever need be.

"That could create bigger matchup problems for them. There would be a bigger (center) guarding me, if that's the matchup. Or we could stick with our same game plan with guys at different positions."

Not having Gray for the game Sunday would be a blow for Pitt. In two games last season against guard-dominated Marquette, Gray averaged 11.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game. He had 13 points and 20 rebounds in a home victory against the Golden Eagles (16-4, 3-2 Big East).

[dwaderoy2004]

kendall obviously has no idea what he is talking about.  if gray is out, we have no need to play a "bigger center".  most likely he would be guarded by fitz or hayward, with barro covering the slightly beefier sam young.  if gray doesn't play in this game, i would have to think that is a distinct advantage for us.  regardless, ihave no doubt in my mind that gray will play on sunday...

[spiral97]

hrm... I, for one, hope he plays.  Partly for the usual sentiment that I wish no player bad karma.. But also because, at the worst, he slaughters us and it's a big learning experience during a good loss on the road which will only help us come tourney time.  At the best, we put on a playing clinic and beat them without any caveats and gain even more confidence and respect on the court.

Take him out of the picture and if we win there'll always be that "yeah but if Gray had played...".. even if we lose there'll be that "imagine how bad it would have been if Gray had played".

Like I've said, I wanna take this one to the court and I can't wait!  Fully interested in seeing both teams at full strength going at it!!

[tower912]

quit worrying about it.  gray plays

[DoubleMU0609]

I'm with Tower... He "injures" his wrist and then goes for 22 and 19?  Doesn't sound that bad to me.

[mviale]

Big Game for Burke, Kinsella and the Ooze

[TVDirector]

oh, he'll play alright.
can't imagine not... biggest game for both teams, I'd say.
conference means everything.

[NYWarrior]

quit worrying about it.  gray plays

he'll play.  but lets hope the lack of continuity due to a lack of availability in practice works to MU's advantage.