Tag: nijel pack

Miami’s Nijel Pack won’t play against Duke on Wednesday

Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said on Tuesday that the junior guard, who is averaging 13.7 points per game, won’t play against the Blue Devils.

Miami junior Nijel Pack won’t play against Duke on Wednesday, according to Hurricanes coach Jim Larrañaga.

South Florida Sun Sentinel beat reporter Adam Lichtenstein shared Larrañaga’s confirmation on social media.

The third-year guard missed Miami’s last game, a Saturday loss to Boston College, with what was called a lower extremity injury. He’s missed three games so far this season.

Pack is averaging 13.7 points, 3.6 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game. He’s shooting 40.5% from the floor and 36.4% from beyond the 3-point line this season, and he’s one of only four Miami players averaging double-digit points per game this year.

Pack spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career with the Wildcats before he transferred to Miami ahead of the 2022-23 season.

The Hurricanes guard has scored 19 or more points in seven games this season, including a season-high 28 points against his former team in November. He also dropped 25 points against Clemson, 23 against the Wolfpack, and 20 points against North Carolina.

Notre Dame slips up late against Miami

Experience beats inexperience in a battle of struggling teams.

The one thing Notre Dame and Miami have in common is that both have struggled lately. Both teams came into Purcell Pavillion on Wednesday having lost four of their past five. For a game like this, one typically might expect experience to win out. That’s exactly what happened in a 73-61 Irish loss.

This contest featured five ties and 10 lead changes, but that all happened while over 80% of game time elapsed. With the Irish (7-12, 2-6) in front by three during the latter portion of the second half, the Hurricanes (13-6, 4-4) went on a 19-2 run to go up by double digits. The Irish never seriously threatened after that as they were outplayed and outclassed by a better and more experienced team.

It was the Norchad Omier show from beginning to end, and that shouldn’t be a surprise given the type of player he is. Back from an ankle injury, he scored 33 points on 12-of-14 shooting, only two points off his collegiate high and his most since joining the Hurricanes from Arkansas State. He also grabbed 10 rebounds to complete a double-double, another hallmark of his game, and recorded three steals.

Of course, Omier got a little help. Kyshawn George scored 11 points while also getting three steals. Nijel Pack had 10 points despite shooting 3 of 10 from the field, and he also dished out a game-high five assists. Off the bench, Bensley Joseph contributed 10 points.

[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] led the Irish with 15 points but also committed a game-high eight turnovers. [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] had 13 points and six rebounds, and [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] scored 10 off the bench.

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Notre Dame unable to hang with Miami in ACC opener

The Irish drop the first of two straight tough Saturday games.

The schedule makers did Notre Dame no favors for the first two Saturdays of December. It had to open ACC play against No. 8 Miami, which is fresh off a Final Four appearance. Another top-10 program, Marquette, will host the Irish in exactly one week. The first of these tough games ended in a 62-49 loss to the Hurricanes.

In all fairness, the Irish (3-4, 0-1) played like the better team for most of the first half, so that’s something to build on. But the Hurricanes (6-1, 1-0) soon scored 12 unanswered points to go up by double digits, and the Irish never recovered. In the second half, they couldn’t cut the deficit any closer than six and were held scoreless for the final five minutes, missing their last 10 shots.

Matt Cleveland, one of the top shooters in the ACC, showed why he has that distinction by leading the Hurricanes with 14 points while shooting five of sevem from the field. He also had four steals. Norchad Omier and Nijel Pack had 13 points apiece with Omier also grabbing 13 rebounds.

[autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] led the Irish with 14 points, 12 of which came on a game-high four 3-pointers. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] completed the first double-double of his collegiate career with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] had six assists but scored only six points on three-of-11 shooting, which included missing all five of his 3-point attempts.

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Miami’s Nijel Pack broke a sneaker and sparked a Final Four catastrophe on the bench

Shoegate became a reality for Miami’s Nijel Pack during the Final Four.

Miami sophomore guard Nijel Pack ran into quite a conundrum during Saturday night’s 2023 men’s NCAA tournament Final Four bout with Connecticut.

During the game’s second half, Pack’s shoe fell apart, and the team wasn’t able to locate him a replacement pair fast enough to quickly get him back out on the court.

The first pair the team found him didn’t fit, so Pack had to chill on the bench until someone on Miami’s staff could locate him the proper pair.

As you can probably guess, having one of your star players lose their shoes in the middle of a Final Four game is not ideal!

Thankfully for Pack and Miami, someone on the team’s staff hustled to make sure he eventually got the right fit.

Pack wound up getting a new pair of shoes and returned to the game. While it seems absolutely bizarre for a college basketball player in such a major moment to not have a backup pair of shoes to wear, we guess stranger things have happened.

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At the very least, any sort of comeback would’ve had quite the narrative segue if Pack played a major role.

Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack commits to Miami (FL) over Ohio State

There’s no doubt Chris Holtmann and staff were hoping for the best on this one. #GoBucks

Usually, the coaching staff has a pretty good gauge on these things, but the Ohio State basketball program was no doubt holding out hope of landing arguably the top transfer available in the portal this year in Kansas State guard Nijel Pack.

OSU has reason to be optimistic because Pack took a visit to Ohio State just a week ago as his last college on the to-do list before making his decision. The hope was that the last impression was the lasting one, but it was not to be. Pack instead picked the Miami Hurricanes in an announcement on his Twitter account Saturday.

Miami got the nod over Ohio State, Purdue, and some other higher-profile programs. He was an All-Big Twelve selection this past season, averaging 17.4 points per contest while shooting an impressive 43.6% from beyond the arc.

Ohio State has been active in trying to land an immediate impact player in the transfer portal so far this offseason. It has already landed former Wright State guard Tanner Holden, but has been linked to several others.

With eight players moving on from the program in one form or another, you can expect Chris Holtmann and staff to continue to work the portal hard, especially at the guard position where the Buckeyes are extremely thin.

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