DJ Funderburk officially out for GT, but allowed to practice

Suspended NC State forward DJ Funderburk has been officially ruled out for NC State’s opening season (and ACC opener) at home against Georgia Tech. Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts made the announcement Monday.

Keatts indefinitely suspended Funderburk in late September for violating team policy, and later said Funderburk had “benchmarks” to meet in order to work his way back to the team.

Keatts said Monday that he’s allowed Funderburk to practice in recent days because he is “starting to move toward the things that I’ve asked him to do.” But Keatts said there’s still no timeline for Funderburk to be cleared to play.

Being allowed back into practice is at least a positive sign for Funderburk, as he was not allowed to participate with the team while suspended. Hopefully his conditioning and readiness hasn’t taken too much of a hit during this time.

Through various reports, it has more or less been confirmed that the suspension was related to an issue with on campus parking violations. The rumor mill being what it is, most expect Funderburk to be suspended for a total of three games, to include the exhibition game and the first two regular season games (Detroit Mercy being the other). I’ve personally heard from sauces that can corroborate this timeline, but grains of salt are still being liberally taken as nothing is official.