The NC State men’s basketball team announced that freshman forward Ernest Ross will miss the rest of the season with a fractured right ankle.
A former four-star forward, Ross will have surgery on Friday to heal his ankle.
“I just feel awful for Ernest,” said head coach Kevin Keatts in a press release. “When it first occurred, we were hopeful that it was just a sprain and that we could get him back in a couple of weeks, but unfortunately X-rays revealed a fracture. It’s a tough ending to his freshman season.”
It’s another tough blow in a long line of injuries to the Pack’s frontcourt, which is now down three of its six scholarship frontcourt players. Ross joins redshirt junior forward Manny Bates and junior forward Greg Gantt Jr. as players that have missed or will miss the entire season. Gantt is the only one of the three with a chance to return this season.
Sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson projects to see more minutes at the backup five, much like he did against No. 6 Duke.
The injury is also rough news for Ross, who had recently joined the rotation as a backup five to sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona. Though Ross only has 14 game appearances on the season and averages just 7.1 minutes and 1.6 points per game, he shot 8 of 11 from the field in his last five games combined while racking up 12 boards and four blocks in that same timeframe
“Ernest has really locked in over the last month,” Keatts said in the release. “We’ve been able to see in practices and in games that everything was slowing down for him, that he was gaining confidence in his understanding of what we do offensively and defensively. He’d earned his spot in the rotation and had played some big minutes for us in crunch time of both of our ACC wins. It’s a big loss for us and everybody will need to step up.”
Ross joined the Pack as part of Keatts’ No. 25-ranking prospect class alongside freshman guards Terquavion Smith and Breon Pass. Ross is the 21st-highest-ranked recruit since 247sports.com began tracking the data with a composite rating of 0.9733.
“I’m very excited for Ernest’s future,” Keatts said in the release. “He’s going to be a great player for this program. We’ll get his ankle fixed, get him in the gym and weight room this summer, and I think he’s primed for a great sophomore season.”
