Hurricanes guard Nijel Pack has been battling injuries all season, and as Miami’s postseason hopes are dwindling in the wake of a four-game losing streak, UM coach Jim Larrañaga said there was discussion about what would be best for Pack’s future.
The fourth-year junior missed Miami’s loss to Boston College on Saturday with a “lower extremity” injury, and Larrañaga said during Monday’s ACC coaches Zoom call that Miami’s team doctors, Pack and the player’s family were discussing the guard’s future.
“While I’m on this conference call, our doctors are going to be on a conference call with Nijel and his parents to really look into the future and see what’s best for the young man,” Larrañaga said. “He’s dealt with these injuries all season long. This is not something that just happened in the last week. He was dealing with this back in December. He missed a couple of games, then he came back and played and now he’s missing a couple more games.
“Last week in our home game against Carolina and then our road game against Clemson, Nijel was just not himself. He tried his best, he gave a great effort, but he was in pain. He’s such a great competitor. He wanted to try to help the team as much as he could, but injuries are injuries. You have to deal with them. We’ll find out either today or tomorrow what his status is for the remainder of the season.”
Pack has played in 23 of Miami’s 26 games this year, averaging 13.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. Against North Carolina, Pack started strongly and scored 18 first-half points but notched only two in the second half. He played 25 minutes against Clemson and did not score, missing all seven of his shots.
Pack, in his second season with the Hurricanes, considered turning pro after the 2022-23 season but opted to return to Miami.
The Hurricanes have five games left in the regular season.