Beyond The Boxscore: It All Comes Back to Bryce

Factors that contributed to the Wolfpack's loss that might not have stood out in the boxscore

No team in any sport, at any level, can withstand an extended absence of its best player without experiencing at least some kind of dropoff.

In some cases, as the North Carolina basketball team is finding out with Cole Anthony, the loss can have a catastrophic impact. For others, the negative effect can be much more subtle.

Coach Kevin Keatts and his NC State Wolfpack are currently in the latter situation.

This is not to suggest that State's C.J. Bryce is in the same category as Anthony, a one-and-done player projected to be an NBA lottery pick this spring. But as the team's top scorer and rebounder, not to mention a veteran leader on and off the court, he is just as important to the Wolfpack's success.

And, as Keatts pointed out after Saturday's 72-58 loss at Virginia Tech, his absence over the past four games has been noticeable.

Although State managed to beat Notre Dame at home last Wednesday, it has lost its other two ACC games -- at Clemson on Jan. 4 and in Blacksburg against the Hokies -- with Bryce on the sidelines recovering from the concussion he suffered during a pregame shootaround on Dec. 29.

"I’m not trying to make any excuses about it, but there’s not many teams that can afford to lose their leading scorer and rebounder and be successful," Keatts said. "We were against Notre Dame at home, but against Clemson and here, we could have used another guy to be able to score the basketball for us and we didn’t have that."

Bryce, who averages 16.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 52.9 percent from the floor, was actually on the court at Cassell Coliseum on Saturday.

His activity, however, was limited to pregame warmups.

Keatts explained that the redshirt senior has still only been cleared for "light contact" and that his pregame participation was simply part of the protocol leading to his eventual return. 

He could have made a difference for the Wolfpack, which shot a season-low 36.4 percent from the floor while being baited into a season-high 30 3-point attempts by Tech's collapsing defense. 

Bryce's presence on the court may or may not have prevented the decisive late 11-0 run that helped the Hokies pull away for the victory or the sputtering start that doomed State at Clemson a week earlier.

But it certainly would have taken some of the pressure off point guard Markell Johnson, whose inconsistency of late can be traced at least in part to his trying to do too much in his fellow senior's absence -- as well as giving the Wolfpack another scoring option and some badly needed backcourt depth.

State (11-5, 2-3 ACC) is playing with only a seven-man rotation while Bryce is out, six of which are averaging 8.2 points or more. Because injuries are a part of the game, Keatts said that it's up to the remaining players to pick up the slack until their teammate is ready to return.

That didn't happen Saturday.

As disappointing as the result was, Keatts said his frustration is tempered by the knowledge that his team is currently operating at a manpower disadvantage.

While he is hopeful that Bryce will be available for his team's next game, Wednesday against Miami at PNC Arena, that likely won't be known until just before tipoff. Officially, the 6-foot-5 wing is listed as day-to-day

"I understand who we are right now," he said. "I understand that we don’t have all of our pieces. That being said, I don’t want to discredit the guys in the program, so I never harp on the fact that we don’t have C.J. Bryce."

Keatts urged State's fan base to be just as understanding.

"If the outside is a little frustrated, they should also take a look around college basketball and see that if you don’t have your best player, you’re probably going to struggle," he said. "I’ll take the good with the bad.

"I haven’t made a lot about it because I want other guys to have the opportunity and don’t feel like I’m saying that we have to have a guy. But we miss (Bryce). We’d miss any of our three or four guards. If any of those guys were out for several games."