BGSU's Marschall suffers broken foot, out for month

12/7/2006

BOWLING GREEN - The player who has had the best start, other than Martin Samarco, for the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team, sophomore center Erik Marschall, will be sidelined at least a month with a broken foot.

X-rays showed a fracture in Marschall's foot, sustained when he came down awkwardly near the end of the first half against Arkansas State Monday. At the earliest he will return in time for the start of the Mid-American Conference season the first week of January.

Marschall, from New London, Ohio, was averaging nearly 12 points a game in the Falcons' first six contests. He had 14 points in the first half on Monday before he left with the injury.

"He was playing so well, you just hate it," BGSU coach Dan Dakich said.

"But, looking at it from a positive, it gives Otis [Polk], [Marc] Larson and Lionel [Sullivan] a real chance to play a lot."

Polk, Larson and Sullivan are all first-year post players. Larson is averaging nine minutes a game and Polk and Sullivan are playing around five a game.

"Marc got hurt when he got sick [with mononucleosis]. It really hurt his development," Dakich said. "He sat out 10 days and he hasn't quite jumped it back to the level it was at. That's what scares me about Erik, particularly going into the league season."

Senior Matt Lefeld will also be counted on for more minutes, but will sit out of practice until tomorrow to rest his feet. Dakich said Polk, who has played in just three games, will definitely see increased time.

"Even my son and my daughter are saying, you've got to play Otis," he said. "When it reaches the dinner table, you've got to take it seriously."

KICKER LEAVES: Sean Ellis, a freshman kicker for the BGSU football team this year, has left the program, an athletic department spokesman said. Ellis, from Merritt Island, Fla., was 4-of-9 on field goal attempts this season and connected on 26 of 28 extra points. Three of the field goal attempts were blocked.

IDAHO STATE FINALIST: BGSU quarterbacks coach Mick McCall is a finalist for the head coaching job at I-AA Idaho State, the school announced. McCall interviewed yesterday at the school in Pocatello, Idaho.

McCall has been at BGSU since 2003, coaching two of the best quarterbacks in school history in Josh Harris and Omar Jacobs. He was an Idaho State assistant from 1983-87, the first year of his tenure the last time Idaho State made the I-AA playoffs.

Idaho State athletic director Paul Bubb said he hopes to have a coach hired by Dec. 15.

MILLER STILL OUT: Sophomore men's basketball player Nate Miller, who transferred to BGSU in the middle of last season and was supposed to be eligible at the end of the first semester, will have to wait one more game for his debut. Miller must sit a game for playing in an unsanctioned 3-on-3 tournament on campus last spring. So instead of debuting Dec. 16 against Wright State and his former coach Brad Brownell from North Carolina-Wilmington, he will first be eligible to play on Dec. 19 against Northern Colorado.

TIDBITS: Junior Kory Lichtensteiger was named to the first-team academic All-MAC football team, the league announced. Lichtensteiger maintains a 3.5 grade-point average majoring in criminal justice. He was also named the first-team center in postseason awards announced earlier. Author Ray Mernagh will be signing copies of his book about mid-major college basketball, 1 Chance 2 Dance, on Saturday at Anderson Arena during the men's game against Central Arkansas. Mernagh spent time at BGSU for the book.