Jim Larranaga addresses how Nijel Pack's absence impacted Miami

The Miami basketball team suffered a tough defeat against in-state rival Florida State in a game where Nijel Pack‘s absence was felt quite a bit.

With the veteran guard out of the lineup, Miami had to turn to its bench and it was a little more than the backups were capable of handling. Florida State overcame a double-digit deficit to roar back and win 85-84.

“Nijel Pack’s a terrific player,” coach Jim Larranaga explained after the game. “By not having him it shortens our rotation. So I don’t know how many minutes Bensley Joseph played, but it’s probably twice as much as normal, maybe three times as much as normal.”

Joseph played 37 minutes against the Seminoles, well above his season average of 21.0 minutes per game.

Because he was running on fumes at various points, Miami just wasn’t the same.

“That doesn’t give him a chance to rest,” Larranaga said of the rotation. “He plays so hard, especially at the defensive end of the floor and we were not able to rest him.”

Nijel Pack’s absence a point of concern

Given Miami’s struggles dealing with Nijel Pack’s absence against Florida State it’s probably safe to say the ‘Canes need him back in a big way.

Luckily Miami will have a little extra time to recover before the team is back in action in the regular-season finale on Saturday.

“We’ve got a week now, so hopefully we can recover,” Larranaga said. “We’ve got Pittsburgh. They’re right there with us. Everybody’s got to play every night. I saw some other games in the league and people you might have thought were going to win didn’t. So depending on the circumstances, what we’re dealing with, we’ll see where we stand later in the week.

“We have the day off and hopefully be able to rest, recover, hopefully get Nijel back so we can get back to our normal rotation.”

Miami and Pitt are scheduled for a 6 p.m. ET tipoff on Saturday with the game broadcast on the ACC Network.