Nijel Pack injury update: Jim Larrañaga paints uncertain future on Miami guard

Nijel Pack, Miami’s lead guard, is missing time again due to an injury.

Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga provided the latest on Pack during his postgame press conference after a 94-75 win for the Hurricanes over Presbyterian on Sunday. He said that he is dealing with a foot injury as he has not taken the floor over the last week.

“You’ll have to ask him. I don’t know,” Larrañaga said.

“No, he hasn’t practiced,” Larrañaga said. “He hasn’t played since Tennessee.”

This matter actually reminded Larrañaga of what Pack dealt with last season. He missed a pair of games over a two-week stretch around the same time the year prior with a knee injury.

“This is kind of déjà vu, if you ask me. You know what I mean, déjà vu? Last year, right. Christmas time,” Larrañaga recalled. “He didn’t play in the last two games against the opponents we faced on December, like, 19th and 22nd or something – 17th or 22nd. So we’re right back in that spot, a different set of circumstances. It’s not the knee that bothered him last year.”

Pack, a graduate student now in his third year with the program, is Miami’s leader in scoring and assists at 13.9 ppg. and 4.3 apg., which is also a career-best, to go with three rebounds. He’s doing that with shooting splits of 45.4% from the field and 38.6% from three.

As for how Miami will handle this moving forward, Larrañaga just wants to keep the team together as best as possible through their start at 4-7. For now, that means Divine Ugochukwu will start in Pack’s place for the Hurricanes until he’s healthy enough to be back.

“Right now, Divines going to start and, you know, keep that starting lineup intact these next games and see how we do,” said Larrañaga.