Gonzalez's status still uncertain

North Carolina State University

Gonzalez's status still uncertain

Freshman Javier Gonzalez calls out a set to the Wolfpack on February 5, 2008.

By Tim Hall

Dec 15, 2009

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Junior point guard Javier Gonzalez played through the pain in the second half at Marquette. But his injured hamstring kept him in street clothes this past Saturday when N.C. State beat Georgia Southern. Now it's uncertain when the team's third-leading scorer will be back.

Head coach Sidney Lowe had no definitive answers on a possible return to the lineup.

"It's really a hard thing because obviously you want to win ball games but we have to look down the road and we have to look at Javy and just make sure he's ready to go," Lowe said on his weekly radio show, heard on 99.9 The Fan ESPN Radio. "We certainly hate that he's hurt."

Lowe did have time to reminisce about a similar hamstring injury that plagued point guard Engin Atsur in his first year as head coach. Atsur suffered a torn hamstring early in the 2006-07. Wolfpack analyst Tony Haynes said on the show that he talked to Atsur after that season in May, and the hamstring was still bothering him.

"After experiencing what we did with Engin I just hope we don't have another of those situations. I hope he can be healed and ready to go," Lowe said.

The one-time point guard for N.C. State's national championship winning team also mentioned that he and assistant coach Monte Towe never got hurt. Even when they were hurt, they weren't hurt.

"The doctors, they're gonna try to hold you out. So you just can't let them know you're hurt," Lowe slyly said. "We [Lowe and Towe] just didn't get hurt, we don't get hurt, so I'm not sure how that's going to affect [Gonzalez] but we'll see."

N.C. State next plays Elon on Thursday night at the RBC Center. Former Wolfpack player Justin Gainey is now an assistant coach with the Phoenix. Just a season ago he was a member of Lowe's staff.

Most Recent Comments

RE: Gonzalez's status still uncertain

i think we can manage to sit javi for one more game if there are any questions about his hamstring. We really need him against wake so to risk an avoidable injury would probably be a good call.

Couldn't hurt to get mays and degand more reps anyway.

RE: Gonzalez's status still uncertain

wait, we are whining because we are pointing out something assumed to be true by every person except Carolina Whiners? Please.

RE: Gonzalez's status still uncertain

State's number of injuries is normal. It's the number of state fans whining ABOUT injuries that is well above the national average.
- Posted by Tar Heels Fan

Go back and read the yates steps back blog. Notice how many unc fans refer to all the injuries their football team had this year, and whine.
- Posted by wolfbitesyourheels

By season's end, State had 16 players OUT FOR THE SEASON. That's six players short of an entire starting offense and defense. And it doesn't include the injuries throughout the year that were not season-ending injuries.

Schools make official injury reports to the NCAA every week. I looked on NCAA.org and tried to find a way of getting to that, or generating some kind of report or list. No luck. If anyone wants to take a stab at it, feel free. I remember seeing a link last year that had State in the top 4-5 teams in official injuries reported to the NCAA. I'm sure we're right up there again, which would confirm my assertion that we're continually well above average in injuries reported. Occasionally I could understand.

I just wonder if some of our injuries don't have to keep our players out so long. I also wonder if there are doctors holding them out longer than necessary in some cases. I'm not the first fan to raise this possibility. Someone at StateFansNation had a blog about this before the season started. I've been waiting for them to follow up on it. They didn't come right out and make any accusations, but they flirted with that possibility.

RE: Gonzalez's status still uncertain

State's number of injuries is normal. It's the number of state fans whining ABOUT injuries that is well above the national average.
- Posted by Tar Heels Fan

Go back and read the yates steps back blog. Notice how many unc fans refer to all the injuries their football team had this year, and whine.

RE: Gonzalez's status still uncertain

Several hours later and not another response from state fans proving they have any more injuries than any other team. See I was right. Ya'll just whine about it more than anyone else.

WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University