RALEIGH After one game with Ted Kapita, NC State will travel to the Paradise Jam without the freshman big man. Kapita will not travel with the Wolfpack to the Virgin Islands to complications with his student visa.”Ted will not travel with the team to the Paradise Jam,” NC State said in a release. “He is in the process of updating paperwork that would be required for him to travel outside the United States. He will rejoin the team for our game here with Loyola on Nov. 26.”Kapita was a huge boost for the Pack in his lone game against St. Francis. The freshman forward finished with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting with eight rebounds in 24 minutes played. His presence alone provided relief for both Abdul-Malik Abu and Torin Dorn, who were relied upon solely for rebounding.Playing against a Montana program that has started the season 0-2 doesn’t seem like a difficult task, but the rest of the field could present issues. Going against teams like Creighton, Washington State or St. Joseph’s without Kapita might be a slightly tougher assignment with three games in four days. While the loss of Kapita hurts, NC State might see the return of Maverick Rowan in the Virgin Islands. Head coach Mark Gottfried was non-committal about his status, but hopes to have him back on the court this weekend.”I think it’s going to be day-to-day, we’re going to keep evaluating him,” Gottfried said of Rowan. “We’re not going to obviously let him participate until he’s 100 percent cleared by doctors, so we did not let him practice today. … We’ll see how he is tomorrow. He is taking the trip with us, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”In his lone game this season, Rowan put up 17 points and nine rebounds against Georgia Southern in 38 minutes. It may have taken him more time to accumulate the stats, but having Rowan back could heal any woes for the Pack’s offense without Kapita in Paradise.
