K-State freshman guard Nijel Pack returns to practice ahead of Iowa State game
Things have not gone well for the Kansas State men’s basketball team without Nijel Pack in the lineup this season.
Fans first realized that when the Wildcats lost four consecutive games in January with Pack sidelined because of COVID-19 protocols, and they were reminded of it last weekend when the Wildcats lost 65-43 at West Virginia as he missed that game because of an eye infection.
Fortunately for K-State, the freshman guard appears to be on the mend.
He is expected to play when the Wildcats close out the regular season against Iowa State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
“By Monday and Tuesday, (his eye) was much more clear,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said on Thursday on his weekly radio show. “The swelling went down, the watering went down. Today he got back in practice for the first time since the Oklahoma game.”
K-State defeated Oklahoma 62-57 on Feb. 23. Weber said Pack was diagnosed with pink eye shortly after and Pack has subsequently spent much of the past week and a half away from the basketball court.
Pack visited with multiple doctors and took eye drops to try and fix the issue, but Weber said the problem didn’t get better last week. If anything, his eye looked worse as game-time approached at West Virginia.
Still, K-State coaches waited until about one hour before tipoff to officially rule him inactive.
“It was up to him as far as playing, but we just did not feel that his vision (was completely there),” Weber said. “If you are trying to play with one eye in a basketball game and now you get hurt because you don’t see something or you run into a screen, we just couldn’t take that chance. I know he wanted to play.”
Good thing the Wildcats had a week off between games for him to recover.
Pack should have two full practices under his belt, plus a shoot-around and walk-through on Saturday before he returns to the court against Iowa State.
He has been K-State’s best all-around player this season, averaging a team high 12.1 points to go along with 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds.