NC State star guard Diamond Johnson will miss the ACC tournament with a lingering ankle injury, coach Wes Moore told WFMY News this week.
Moore said the program intends for Johnson, a sophomore, to use the time off to more fully recover so she can be as healthy as possible heading into the NCAA tournament.
"We just felt like there's a two-week break between the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament, and [her sitting out] gives us another week," Moore told Hall. "Obviously, this week we were able to keep her out and then next week, so we just felt like, save it and hopefully get her ready for the NCAAs."
Despite Johnson's absence, NC State defeated Syracuse 83-58 on Thursday afternoon in second round action at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Before the postseason, Johnson had missed seven games (four in late December/early January and three to conclude the regular season) with the injury. The Wolfpack lost two of their last three contests (Virginia Tech and Duke) coming into the tournament without Johnson, the Wolpack's top scorer (12.3 points) and leader in assists (3.5) and minutes per game (28.3).
Johnson, who last played in a game Feb. 16, was recently selected to the all-ACC second team and was the league's sixth player of the year last season.
Following the departure of a decorated senior class, NC State had an up-and-down season and now sit at 20-10 after Thursday's win. The Wolfpack entered the ACC tournament as the defending champions, having won three straight tournament titles from 2020-2022. ESPN's Charlie Creme lists the Wolfpack, which advanced to the Elite Eight last year before losing to UConn, as a 7-seed in his latest NCAA tournament bracketology.