Wake Forest Basketball: Jao Ituka suffers yet another offseason injury
Wake Forest Basketball may be without Jao Ituka for the 2023-24 season. Can the team handle having one fewer playable guard?
A year ago, Wake Forest Basketball landed several transfers, including Jao Ituka. As a freshman, he was the MAAC Rookie of the Year at Marist, averaging 15.3 ppg on 41% shooting from three-point range. When he transferred to the Demon Deacons, there was plenty of hype of the kind of impact he’d have.
Unfortunately for both Ituka and Wake Forest, injuries limited him to just six games player, scoring a combined 18 total points. The good news for the team is that another transfer (Tyree Appelby), went off to lead the team with 18.8 ppg and keep them competitive overall last season. But with him gone, the Demon Deacons needed to find new production from the backcourt.
The hope was that Ituka would be part of a collective effort, especially since he already knows the system. But it’s now looking like the 2023-24 campaign could be over before it even begins.
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With two months before the start of the season, that timeline means that Ituka would at best get back around ACC play but could very well not get cleared. And if he isn’t 100%, why waste another season of eligibility? Because the team will either be good enough to not even need him anyways or bad enough to not make the comeback attempt worth it.
Without Ituka, all eyes will be on the two incoming transfers that’ll take the minutes at point guard. One is Kevin “Boopie” Miller, who has his own injury history. He was limited to just four games last year, while averaging 13.1 ppg and 4.6 apg as a freshman at Central Michigan.
The other pickup was Hunter Sallis, a former five-star prospect that spent two years coming off the bench at Gonzaga with a career average of 4.5 ppg. He’s known for being more of a defender than pure scorer but the Deacons will need him to become the next breakout transfer in order for them to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid.
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It’s disappointing that this will be the second straight year not seeing Ituka at Wake Forest but there is enough talent for the team to stay afloat. But the pressure on Miller and Sallis to succeed definitely has gone up a notch.