An Injury Update After NC State’s Exhibition Victory Over Lees-McRae

Last night NC State squeaked out a 79-75 victory over Lees-McRae in their lone exhibition game of the 2024-25 Men’s Basketball season. The Wolfpack was without Junior Mike James (Louisville Transfer) and Sophomore Dennis Parker Jr. NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts gave an update on the status of both players after the game in his postgame press conference.

So Dennis has had a string of bad luck. Before the scrimmage, he turned his ankle. He was practicing his way back.

He’s playing well. He turned his other ankle. So I don’t know.

I don’t know if we got to switch his shoes or whatever.

Mike’s going to be out for about three or four games, maybe, hopefully. I don’t know.

He had to get his knee scoped. Nothing major, but, you know, I don’t know. I would expect him to be out maybe the next two or three weeks, could even creep up to four weeks.

Parker Jr. has sprained both of his ankles recently. While the severity of the most recent sprain was not given, it’s a good sign that the injury is relatively minor.

James on the other hand had his knee scoped, and according to Keatts, he could possibly miss 3 or 4 games. A few sentences later, he said he could miss 2-3 weeks, and possibly 4.

If James missed 2 weeks, he would miss 3 games. If he missed 3 weeks, he would miss 5 games. If he missed 4 weeks, he would miss 7 games.

In a perfect world, James would be back before NC State heads out to California to play in the Rady Children’s Invitational where they will play #14 Purdue, in a rematch of the Final Four. The next day, they will play either #24 Ole Miss or BYU.

Last night, Marcus Hill started for the Wolfpack, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a healthy James would start over him.