Markell Johnson's season gets off on the wrong foot
When NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts said Monday that his team would likely be shorthanded for its season opening game against Georgia Tech the next day, it was assumed that he was talking about one of the four players that missed all or part of the Wolfpack's exhibition game against Mount Olive.
But three of the four -- Braxton Beverly, Jericole Hellems and Danny Dixon -- all played against the Yellow Jackets.
As it turned out, the injured player in question was the one State could least afford to lose,.
Instead of leading the Wolfpack on the court, senior point guard Markell Johnson sat on the bench in street clothes nursing an ankle injury suffered in practice late last week.
"Markell, I'd say about four days, five days ago in practice, came down on somebody's foot and he's got a pretty good sprain," Keatts said after the Wolfpack's 82-81 overtime loss at PNC Arena. "We wanted to be careful with it."
Keatts said that it's still to early to determine how long Johnson might be out. State doesn't play again until Sunday, when it takes on Detroit Mercy.
The 6-foot-1 Ohio native averaged 12.6 points and 4.2 assists last season. He scored 26 points in the exhibition win against Mount Olive.
"We've got a day or two off this week that we're going to continue to get him treatment," Keatts said, "to figure out where he's going to go from that point on."
Although the Wolfpack jumped out to an early 15 point lead and nearly won the game without its top returning scorer and floor leader, the team clearly missed Johnson at key times of the game.
One came late in the first half when his point guard fill-in Braxton Beverly went out with his third personal foul. State's offense ground to a halt for the remainder of the half, allowing the Yellow Jackets to get back into contention.
His presence was missed even more down the stretch, a time in which Johnson has traditionally taken over in close games. Despite strong efforts from C.J. Bryce and Jericole Hellems that helped hold Tech off for most of the game, the lack of a pure playmaker on the final few possessions of regulation and overtime eventually did the Wolfpack in.
"I looked out there a couple of times and I told the assistant coaches that we had five guys on the floor we'd only had maybe once or twice at practice together," Keatts said. "So we were in a different situation than we normally would be.
"But you'll never hear me complain or cry about injuries because I consider injuries as part of the game. We just had a short bench tonight."
It's a bench that will remain short for awhile even after Johnson gets back. Not only is junior big man D.J. Funderburk still under an indefinite suspension, but Keatts announced after the game Tuesday that the NCAA has ruled freshman wing Dereon Seabron must sit out the season as an academic redshirt.
