The wait is continuing for Rodney Rice to make his debut as injury has prevented him from playing so far this season for Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, the Hokies were without John Camden in their 69-64 victory over Charleston Southern due to an injury and not a coach's decision to not work him in the rotation.
After the game, Hokies head coach Mike Young provided a pair of updates on Rice and Camden.
We'll start with Rice who is still yet to make his debut this season due to injury with Young currently unsure of the timeline for his return at the moment as he continues to progress with his injury recovery.
"He's doing great. He's getting closer," Young said. "Rodney Rice is going to come back when he's healthy. He's close. I don't know if it's going to be Monday (vs Minnesota). I don't know if it's going to be 10 days from now. Rodney Rice is going to play when Rodney Rice is healthy, that's the bottom line. I don't know when the hell that's going to be."
Unsurprisingly, Mike Young has been asked plenty this year about the status of Rice in his recovery and as much as everybody would probably love to have a set date for a debut, these things can always be longer (or occasionally shorter) than expected.
There's no doubt that Tech would love to have Rice to give them a true point guard who can spell Sean Pedulla at times without having to shift Hunter Cattoor or Darius Maddox from the wing to that on-ball role. For now though, Tech will have to continue to stay the course on that front while Rice continues to work his way back from injury.
Elsewhere, John Camden picked up an injury during practice this past week following the Charleston Classic that Mike Young addressed after the CSU game when asked about it.
"John (Camden) is in a boot, hurt his ankle a little bit. I would say it is a week, 10-day heal. He's got some discoloration in it, swelling went down considerably today. He's going to be back pretty quickly," Young said. "It was Wednesday, stepped on somebody's foot and it flipped over. He'll be back rather quickly."
So far this season, Camden is averaging 1.6 points and 1.0 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per game working primarily at the 4 for the Hokies. There have been times where Tech have gone with bigger lineups given Camden's versatile skill set that allows Tech to use him comfortably at the 3.
He hasn't had the best start to the season, but Tech does lose some versatility with his absence though it seems like he will only miss 1-2 more games with Tech only playing Minnesota (Monday) and UNC (Sunday, 12/4) within the 10-day window Mike Young referenced.
