The Bryce Still Isn't Right For State
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- C.J. Bryce made his first gameday appearance on the court in nearly two weeks when he warmed up with his teammates before NC State took on Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum on Saturday.
But it only turned out to be a tease.
Although his pregame workout raised speculation that Bryce might finally be ready to return to action after suffering a concussion on Dec. 29, the Wolfpack's leading scorer and rebounder still has yet to be cleared for full participation.
"He wasn’t playing," Keatts said after State's 72-58 loss to the Hokies. "It’s a protocol that we have to go through. He’s cleared for light contact. He’s cleared to work out. We let him warm up today because this was one of those days where if he works out today and he feels good about, he has a chance to play on Wednesday (against Miami).
"Because we are off as a team tomorrow, we didn’t want to waste a day where our doctors could look at him and say that he looks good."
Bryce didn't travel to last Saturday's game at Clemson. He was back on the bench for Wednesday's home game against Notre Dame, his first public appearance since taking an accidental shot to the head from teammate Manny Bates.
The redshirt senior wing provided a glimmer of hope that he might be able to suit up for Saturday's game when he took part in practice on Friday. But while Keatts said that Bryce handled the physical activity well, he took a turn for the worse a few hours later. .
"He didn’t feel so great last night," Keatts said. "So obviously the doctors decided to shut him down."
The Wolfpack could have used Bryce against the Hokies.
After getting off to a quick 10-0 start, State cooled off considerably while making only 22 of its 69 field goal attempts (31.9 percent). It had even more trouble from behind the 3-point arc, going 6 of 30, including 1 of 13 in the second half.
Bryce averages 16.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 52.9 percent from the floor. He is also tied for the team lead with 21 steals.
Even more important than his production in the boxscore is his veteran leadership, an area teammate Braxton Beverly said was lacking down the stretch Saturday. The Wolfpack has lost two of the four games Bryce has missed thus far, both to ACC opponents on the road.
State is now 11-5 overall, 2-3 in the conference. Of those five ACC games, only once had Keatts had all his key players available at the same time.
"I just think we’re missing another guard," Keatts said. "He’s a good player. I’m not trying to make any excuses about it, but there’s not many teams that can afford to lose their leading scorer and rebounder and be successful.
"We won against Notre Dame at home, but against Clemson and here, we could have used another guy to be able to score the basketball for us, and we didn’t have that. That being said, we had a great opportunity for some other guys to step up, and we just didn’t make the shots."
The good news is that it doesn't appear as though Bryce will be out much longer.
His teammates are taking it as a good sign that he was back on the court Saturday, even if only for pregame warmups.
"It was great," Beverly said. "It means he’s right around the corner from coming back. We’re excited about that. It sucks that we couldn’t have him today, but he’s at least travelling with us and back with us and feeling good."
