UPDATE: Markell Johnson Remains Day-to-Day

Kevin Keatts provided an update on NC State junior point guard Markell Johnson for the media.

“I think I said it the other day, he’s a guy that could play on Thursday or could play three or four weeks from now,” Keatts said.  “I’m not going to play him until he feels mentally and physically ready to play.  

“There won’t be any pressure on our end. We’re prepared to go into every game without him. If he’s able to play, feels he can play, and the doctors and trainers say he can play we’d definitely love to have him back in our lineup somewhere playing.”

Johnson has resumed practicing but isn’t going full speed.

“He’s getting shots up with no contact at this point,” Keatts said. “He’s not moving really fast.  Anything we do at the beginning where we get shots up and there is no contact and we break down into post and perimeter, he participates in that.”

Keatts added that Johnson seems to be progressing and it’s not an injury where his star guard has felt soreness following workouts.

“I think he feels better each day,” said Keatts.  “I typically get a report from our trainer right after practice and every night and the report last night was he felt better after working out yesterday.

“It’s one of those deals where if you look at it, he took a pretty nasty fall. He doesn’t have a lot of meat in that area and fell on his back so he’s really, really sore.”

Johnson is averaging 11.6 points and 4.1 assists this season while shooting 57% from the field and 47% from three-point range.