NC State missing CJ Bryce for more than his stats
N.C. State’s players huddled up around the foul line about 45 minutes before Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech.
The song “No Flockin” by Black Kodak was playing in a mostly empty Cassell Coliseum. N.C. State’s players were bouncing to the beat. In the middle of the huddle was C.J. Bryce.
It was a small but symbolic moment. The other players were drawn to Bryce, their senior leader. He keeps the beat, if you want to extend the analogy.
But Bryce couldn’t play on Saturday. He missed his fourth straight game with the after effects of a concussion.
N.C. State lost 72-58 to a surprising Virginia Tech team that’s not exactly deep on talent. What the Hokies do have is a clear hierarchy and understanding of who drives the bus. Landers Nolley is their scoring star and they know how to play around him.
Take out Nolley (29 points or 40.2 percent of the offense) for Virginia Tech and who knows what happens on Saturday. You already know what has happened to North Carolina since its best player has been sidelined by an injury.
That’s the same predicament N.C. State is in. Bryce isn’t going to be a lottery pick, like UNC’s Cole Anthony, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue he isn’t as valuable to his team.
“We miss him,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said of Bryce.
Bryce, at 16.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, is missed as much for his production as his leadership. Markell Johnson is a senior point guard, and N.C. State’s most talented player, but he is not a vocal leader.
D.J. Funderburk is N.C. State’s best interior scorer, and he had 18 points on Saturday, but N.C. State’s not good enough to win many games without all of its parts.
“I try not to make any excuses about it but there aren’t many teams who can afford to lose their leading scorer and leading rebounder and be successful,” Keatts said.
N.C. State obviously needs Johnson to play better than he did on Saturday. Johnson made 2 of 14 shots and had five turnovers. He did have nine assists and probably could have had more if the rest of the Wolfpack lineup had shot better than 5 of 23 from the 3-point line.
“He had an off night,” Keatts said of Johnson. “That being said, most of our guys did. Markell is not to blame. If you want to blame anybody, blame me.”
Keatts said he has not wanted to harp on Bryce’s absence because he doesn’t want to appear to be making excuses. But the reality is Keatts needs a full lineup to win consistently.
N.C. State is not going to win with designated shooters Braxton Beverly and Pat Andree missing open 3s and promising forward Jericole Hellems missing 12 of his 14 shots.
Keatts has not shown as much frustration with the loss on Saturday, or the one last week at Clemson, as the fan base. Part of that is understanding how valuable Bryce is to the team.
“I understand who we are right now,” Keatts said. “I understand we don’t have all of our pieces.”
It’s par for a 30-plus year course that N.C. State lost Bryce in a “friendly-fire” accident in a pre-game practice on Dec. 29. Freshman forward Manny Bates caught Bryce square in the face with his full force on a follow through of a dunk.
Bryce missed the Appalachian State game that day and then the 81-70 loss at Clemson on Jan. 4 and Wednesday’s home win over Notre Dame.
He had been completely off the court until Friday’s practice in Blacksburg. Bryce then went through warmups on Saturday, which added to some of the confusion of his status.
But there are stages to the concussion protocol and going symptom-free in consecutive days is part of that.
“We let him warm up today because this is one of the days that if he works out the next couple of days and feels good about it, he has a chance to play on Wednesday,” Keatts said.
Keatts said Bryce had a setback after the Friday workout.
“He went through practice yesterday and then felt good,” Keatts said. “He didn’t feel so great last night and so obviously the doctors decided to shut him down.”
As much as N.C. State misses Bryce, it would be irresponsible to rush him back from a concussion. He’s making progress. He was able to go through warmups and be there on the bench for his teammates. Soon enough, he’ll be able to do more.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 6:28 PM with the headline "NC State missing CJ Bryce for more than his stats."
