Jim Larranaga reveals Nijel Pack to miss Monday's ACC clash against North Carolina

As the Miami Hurricanes look for a huge win to get their season back on track against North Carolina on Monday, they’re going to be missing one of their best players once again.

When the Hurricanes take the floor, guard Nijel Pack won’t be with them, as Jim Larranaga revealed he’ll be missing another game on Monday, as he won’t be able to suit up against the Tar Heels in a conference clash.

“Miami’s Nijel Pack (lower body) is OUT for tonight’s game against North Carolina, per Jim Larranaga,” CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Averages 13.7 PPG. Has not played since 2/14.”

After suffering their sixth-straight loss over the weekend, Miami had hoped for Pack to return to the lineup on Monday. As you can see, that won’t be the case, and he’ll be missing another showdown for the Hurricanes.

We’ll see if Miami can end their skid without their star, but it’ll certainly be a tall order, as North Carolina remains one of the best teams in the nation at the moment.

Jim Larranaga: ‘It seems like we’re climbing a mountain uphill and keep slipping back’

Moreover, the Miami basketball team suffered its fifth straight loss on Wednesday night, this time in lopsided fashion against Duke with multiple players missing due to injury. For coach Jim Larranaga, it was a frustrating setback, which was exasperated by another loss over the weekend against Georgia Tech.

“It seems like we’re climbing a mountain uphill and keep slipping back,” Larranaga said. “And we ran into a very good team tonight that every mistake we made we paid for. So I’ll meet with the team tomorrow. I have a couple of very specific messages and hopefully we can start climbing up without slipping so far back.”

Perhaps the first order of business is getting healthy again. Miami was without Nijel Pack and Matthew Cleveland in the game on Wednesday night, immediately putting the team at a disadvantage against Duke.

It’s going to be hard for the Hurricanes to really turn things around without more firepower in the lineup.

“The way I look at it, I don’t know how the players look at it, I think when we’re at full strength and we’re able to prepare and practice correctly, we’re a much better team than we look like right now,” Larranaga said. “But we’re not at full strength. We haven’t been at full strength almost the entire ACC race.”

We’ll see what the future holds for Miami, but Nijel Pack will be missing again for the Hurricanes on Wednesday, which certainly doesn’t bode well.