North Carolina State University Athletics
Sherrill "Very Doubtful" for Maryland Game
3/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Chances are, NC State's Scooter Sherrill considered the possibility that his college basketball career was over after twisting his ankle early in the second half of the Wolfpack's 71-64 loss to North Carolina on Sunday night. Lying face down and pounding his fist on the RBC Center floor, the 6-3 senior clearly was experiencing both mental and physical anguish when he went down with 18:54 left in the game. Fortunately, it doesn't appear that Sherrill has played his last basketball for NC State, although it's highly doubtful he'll have a chance to participate in his senior game against Maryland on Wednesday night.
Sherrill, who is averaging 10.5 points per game for the Pack this season, has been diagnosed with a grade 2 sprain to his left ankle. X-rays taken after the injury occurred on Sunday night came up negative.
"We're going to continue to evaluate it on a day-by-day basis and hopefully get him back in the line-up as soon as possible," Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek said on Monday. "I can't tell you with any degree of certainty when that will be. I wish I knew for sure when he'll be returning. Obviously, we hope for the best and hopefully it will be a minimal amount of time."
After missing all seven of his field goal attempts in the first half against the Tar Heels, Sherrill scored his first bucket of the game following an offensive rebound early in the second half. But upon coming down under the basket, his ankle twisted after he landed on the foot of North Carolina's Rashad McCants.
Down 11 points at the time, the Wolfpack rallied to take the lead in the final minutes before eventually falling by seven points.
With Sherrill ailing in the second half, sophomore Cam Bennerman and junior Levi Watkins were featured more prominently in the NC State rotation. If Sherrill can't come back for the last two regular season games this week, Sendek will have to make some adjustments to both his starting line-up and bench rotation.
"I honestly don't know that yet," Sendek said. "We're going to have to tinker with some things. Scooter has been a mainstay in our rotation. Many nights, he's played 35-plus minutes for us, so we're going to have to get those distributed across the board in some way and come up with some different line-ups that we can take a look at."
With NC State playing its final home game on Wednesday night, Sherrill and fellow senior Marcus Melvin will be honored in the traditional senior ceremony prior to the 9:00 p.m. contest.
Up until Sherrill's misfortune on Sunday night, NC State had gone through the entire season without sustaining the type of crippling injury that had always seemed to take a key player away from the rotation in previous years. Now a junior, Watkins missed the majority of his freshman campaign after sustaining an ACL tear in his knee in late December of 2001. Ilian Evtimov was redshirted the very next year after suffering a similar injury prior to the 2002-03 season.
With two games to play in the regular season, NC State is 18-7 overall and 10-4 in league play. Currently holding down second place in the ACC, the Pack is one game in front of Wake Forest, which will travel to Virginia on Tuesday night. The Wolfpack and Deacons will then conclude the regular season by facing off against each other Sunday afternoon in Winston-Salem.
