Center Rivas-Sanchez sidelined 3 months

[Stier]

USF senior center Alex Rivas-Sanchez will undergo surgery to replace the metal rods in his lower legs, a procedure that will sideline him for the start of the Bulls' upcoming season.

Rivas-Sanchez, expected to be part of Stan Heath's regular rotation in the post, should be able to return to games in about three months, which would allow him to play in all Big East action, but not much before that.

With Rivas-Sanchez likely unavailable for the first month of the season, the Bulls will have just three players for their two post positions -- junior center Jarrid Famous, sophomore forward Gus Gilchrist and freshman forward Toarlyn Fitzpatrick. As a result, the Bulls might sport a four-guard lineup at times early on.

Rivas-Sanchez averaged 4.2 points and 4.7 rebounds last season, and was slowed early in the year as he recovered from surgery to insert metal rods in his lower legs. He finished second on the team with 15 blocked shots.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/2009/09/center-rivassanchez-sidelined-3-months.html#comments

[Held_AccountaBull]

Not good. He could be the least talented big man that we have but we need the bodies. Hopefully this won't tire the other guys out.

[Triple B]

Would like to hear more about why they're doing this NOW. What's prompting the replacement of the rods?

[South_Florida_Flip]

Would like to hear more about why they're doing this NOW. What's prompting the replacement of the rods?

Very good question. I'm not sure if this is an answer, but he did play throguh a good deal of pain and maybe the Dr's needed to wait until they felt he was fully healed before the rods come out.

[Greg Auman]

I was at practice Monday, and my understanding is that he's still being limited by pain in his legs -- much like a stress fracture. The surgery gives him a chance to return to full strength in time for Big East play.

[Velcro]

Rivas showed bursts where he really helped us, and other times where he just couldn't cut it.

Hopefully being fully healthy will make those good streaks happen with some type of frequency b/c we could really use rebounding, and if he can put in 5-10 pts a game cleaning up misses, that would be a huge boost.