Duke is set to open play in the ACC Tournament on Thursday, and as of now, it looks like it’ll be without Pat Ngongba and Caleb Foster, both out with foot injuries.
Jon Scheyer has said that both are likely out this week, but Duke hasn’t released any details.
There’s a strategic reason for that: the selection committee factors injuries into seeding decisions, so don’t expect to see anything about that before Monday or so.
A few points about the injuries: first, remember all season when people were saying
that Duke couldn’t win with Caleb Foster at point guard?
Many of those same people are now saying Duke can’t win without him. Go figure.
Secondly, in 2001, Duke had a very powerful team, but lost Carlos Boozer down the stretch to a foot injury. He made it back for the end, but it looked pretty dicey in March.
And of course, Duke won the championship that year.
We’re not saying his sons will do the same thing necessarily, but they might. Duke is really good. They’ll have to work out how to give Cayden Boozer some rest, since he’ll have to step in for Foster. That will be worked out somehow – perhaps by the Mike Krzyzewski concept of conveyance (basically the team passes the ball up court instead of someone dribbling it up).
Remember this idiot from the other day? He said Cayden Boozer should be playing D3 ball.
Turns out he’s full of stupid takes. One of his latest gems: Dan Hurley’s system doesn’t work, apparently because he’s not producing tons of draft picks.
Here’s a free reframe: Hurley’s system works brilliantly, because he identifies players who can work in it, and the guy has won two national championships using said system. Plus, his players seem to really love him.
In general, we’re absolutely in favor of letting everyone speak his or her mind, but the cost of that is that you have to sort through a lot of moronic posts, and Eddielinks has a bunch of them, including one that says that Deron Rippey is already the best player Duke has ever had (X would not load when we tried to call it up, but maybe you’ll have better luck).
Quick, somebody alert Kyrie, Zion, Jayson, Paolo, Cooper, Kon, and Cam.
Anyway, we’d go to war with our supposed D3 point guard. He does make some mistakes, like dribbling deep into the defense on a fast break against UNC, only to realize that he was under the basket and out of options. As Dean Smith once said: freshmen!
Nonetheless, Cayden tends to make smart, winning plays, and he makes a lot more of them when things get tense. Our biggest concern is how Duke gives him a blow, followed by a narrow bit of wiggle room for foul trouble, but we think he’ll be fine.
Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions | Drop us a line
