Miami's starting point guard will not play against Duke basketball due to injury

The Duke basketball team will not see Miami's starting point guard, Nijel Pack, on Wednesday night in Coral Gables.

Head coach Jim Larranaga updated the status of his star on Tuesday afternoon.

Pack is dealing with a "lower extremity" injury and missed the Hurricanes' loss Saturday on the road against Boston College.

The last four games he has played in have been rollercoasters, shooting 4-of-15 from the floor in a victory over Virginia Tech before missing all eight shot attempts and scoring just two points against Virginia as Miami scored a total of 38 points.

In a critical game for the 'Canes NCAA Tournament hopes, he went for 20 points against North Carolina but the team fell in the minutes and then went scoreless in 25 minutes against Clemson.

There was doubt, as of Monday morning, if Pack would play again this season for the Hurricanes.

"Our doctors are going to be on a conference call with Nijel and his parents to really look into the future and see what’s best for the young man,” Larranaga said on the ACC teleconference.

“He’s dealt with these injuries all season long. This is not something that just happened in the last week...He missed a couple of games, then he came back and played and now he’s missing a couple more games."

Pack has played in 23 games this season, missing three with injury, and is averaging 13.7 points per game, third best on the team.

There is an expectation that he will return when Miami faces Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon.

Miami (15-11, 6-9 ACC), who peaked as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press Top-25 this season, has lost five of six games and is nowhere close to the NCAA Tournament picture.

Starting forward Matthew Cleveland also missed practice on Monday due to an illness but Larranaga said he was expected to return on Tuesday and be available on Wednesday. Cleveland is the team's second leading scorer at 14.0 points per contest.

No. 8 Duke (20-5, 11-3 ACC) also enters the game with injury concerns as Tyrese Proctor's status is uncertain due to a concussion suffered last Monday against Wake Forest. Proctor did not travel to Florida State with the team last weekend.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN).