Larranaga offers injury updates heading into UM road game Wednesday vs. Notre Dame
Norchad Omier, who missed the University of Miami loss at Syracuse with a sprained ankle, was expected to return to practice Monday, according to coach Jim Larranaga. His status for the road game Wednesday against Notre Dame is day-to-day.
Miami lost by three points to Syracuse and has lost four of its past five games, dropping to 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (tied for eighth place).
“Norchad is a warrior and is going to do everything he can to practice and play, but we won’t know until practice Monday, Tuesday and the game Wednesday,” Larranaga said.
The coach said freshman Michael Nwoko defended and rebounded well against Syracuse, “but you can’t expect a freshman with limited playing experience to replace your best player, your leading scorer and rebounder, a guy who has scored over 1,500 career points. It’s not reasonable.”
Meanwhile, Wooga Poplar continues to feel the effects of a sprained ankle in late December and has not been the same since. Larranaga pointed out that the high-flying Poplar has not been dunking in practice or in games because he can’t elevate off his injured left foot.
“Wooga has been frustrated a little bit by the ankle and then getting a couple early fouls and having to sit out,” the coach said.
Larranaga said the team had 19 practices since the middle of December and not once during that span have all five starters been able to participate. Nijel Pack missed 11 days, Poplar missed six, and Omier sat out a practice last week before missing the Syracuse game.
“That makes it really challenging to prepare,” Larranaga said. “Someone’s always out. It really hurts on-the-court chemistry. We’ve always been able to rely very heavily on being able to play well together, but when you miss practices, you’re a little bit out of sync and not in great shape. We’re hoping we’ll have our whole team to practice [Monday].”
Larranaga said injuries are a big reason for Hurricanes’ January slump.
“We’re very, very capable of being every bit as good as the preseason prognosticators said we would be, if we were healthy,” he said. “Our players are going through some difficult times because they want to play great and are not physically capable of doing it at this moment.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 3:28 PM.