NC State ‘heartbroken’ as team loses star player Manny Bates for the year with injury
Manny Bates was supposed to be the centerpiece of the N.C. State offense this season. Now Kevin Keatts and company will have to adjust to life without him.
On Friday, the team announced that Bates, the junior center, will miss the remainder of the season.
In Tuesday’s season opener against Bucknell, Bates only logged 58 seconds before leaving the game for good with an injury to his shoulder. Bates was chasing after a loose ball, grabbed his shoulder and walked to the locker room.
Bates has had multiple surgeries on his shoulder, dating back to high school.
“I’m just heartbroken,” Keatts said. “I’m heartbroken for Manny because he’s overcome so much to become the incredible player he is. He does everything the right way. He doesn’t take shortcuts. He’s a prime example of everything I want an N.C. State basketball player to be on and off the court. I know Manny has the work ethic and positive mental attitude to come back from this. I know he’ll come back stronger, and I know Manny’s best basketball is still ahead of him.”
He was held out of the exhibition game last week against Elizabeth City State University but was in the starting lineup Tuesday against the Bison. N.C. State defeated Bucknell 88-70 without Bates. Now the Wolfpack will have to play without him longer than expected.
In the offseason, Keatts boasted about Bates’ improvement on the offensive end of the floor. Last season he averaged 9.8 points per game, but wasn’t the top scoring option on a team that featured D.J. Funderburk and Devon Daniels. With those two players gone, Bates was expected to get more touches this season.
Now Keatts will depend on sophomores Jaylon Gibson (6-10, 220) and Ebenezer Dowuona (6-11, 225) to handle all the work in the paint. Dowuona played 25 minutes against the Bison, scoring just two points but pulling down a career-high 10 rebounds. Gibson scored no points in 13 minutes of action.
“I thought he (Dowuona) rebounded the ball very well and that is what we wanted from him,” Keatts said after the Bucknell game. “I have been very critical of EB, talking about how I need him to become a better rebounder. He did a tremendous job. He’s a guy that didn’t play last year and only totaled eight rebounds and two blocks. Tonight he had 10 rebounds and two blocks. This is new for him. Him and Jaylon [Gibson] I thought did their job and did a good job coming in. We are not asking those guys to score right now and so they are doing a good job rebounding the basketball for us.”
Now Dowuona will have to fill in a bigger role moving forward. The former ESPN four-star recruit appeared in just nine games a year ago, scoring just five points on the season.
N.C. State (1-0) hosts Colgate (1-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday (ACC Network Extra).
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 1:14 PM.
