Erik Stenger not travelling to the Battle for Atlantis

Erik Stenger came out of the tunnel at Musketeer Madness to "Born in the USA," and it's in the USA that he's staying this weekend despite his teammates' departure to the Bahamas. The team is participating in the Battle4Atlantis - tipping off at 7pm against Iowa for their first-round game - but Stenger has remained behind on the continent proper due to the same lethargy that kept him out of Xavier's game against Abilene Christian on Monday. Coach Mack announced at that time that Stenger was getting blood work done, but HIPAA has prevented me from finding out what the results of that were.

It goes without saying (though here I am saying it anyway) that this is concerning on more than one level. At the immediate, basketball level, Xavier loses a valuable forward whose presence and energy would have been important to have around for the weekend. When you're playing three games in three days, depth is an important thing to have. In the long run, Stenger's future probably lies off the hardwood. It's hard not to think of former Xavier standout Joe Hughes, whose health concerns last season were a rallying point for the Xavier fan base at large.

Obviously, we hope that Stenger's blood work comes back with an easy solution to his ills. Having been both a senior in college and a person in Ohio weather in November, it seems reasonable to me to assume that something non-trivial would have to be going on to keep Stenger off of that plane to the Bahamas. We'll keep you posted on the situation as information becomes available.