Duke “ optimistic ” he will be back from Maliq Brown this season
Jon Scheyer provides an update on Forward who suffered a dislocated shoulder in Virginia
There is the optimism that Duke will have Maliq Brown Back on the field at some point this season.
Blue Devils just don’t know when it could be.
“We … have done all the imaging and positive news. There is nothing abnormal that you are not ready to do with an dislocated shoulder ”, Coach Jon Scheyer said via Zoom Thursday. “I think we are optimistic that we can recover it this season.
“I think the most difficult part is that it has a lot to do with its stability which, at the moment, is still quite painful. We have to see how long it takes. »»
Scheyer added that Brown will not play “next week”. Duke embodies Illinois in New York on Saturday evening and goes to Miami on Tuesday.
Brown suffered the injury at the end of the first half of Duke 80-62’s victory in Virginia. On a room that seemed routine enough – certainly the one we used to see from Brown – he reached to divert a pass and immediately fell and doubled, grabbing his left shoulder.
Duke had five regular season games and an advance in a match on Clemson and Louisville in the ACC. The Blue Devils hold the tie equality breakage with Louisville, through their victory against the cardinals in December, but Clemson holds the advantage in-head as the only ACC team to have beaten DUKE.
“I would say it’s a few weeks,” said Scheyer. “But Maliq will do everything he can to return to the ground. We are happy to see nothing crazy about it. “”
Traditional counting statistics for Brown will never tell the story of its impact. It has an average of 2.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per match, and has 33 assists and 30 interceptions in 21 games. According to Evanmiya, Brown is the second best defensive player in Duke behind Cooper FlaggWith a defensive Bayesian performance note of 3.16 (DBPR incorporates individual efficiency statistics from a player and an impact of play on the field).
The Blue Devils have been without brown for five games this season. He missed a match in December against Incarnate Word because of an injury to the toe, then missed four in January with a trampled knee.
Duke went 5-0 in these games, although the last two played without Brown were matches at Wake Forest and against NC State, who both need returns in the second period. It should be noted: in these two games, Duke went to a 2-3 zone in the second period to solve certain defensive problems in these games.
Without brown, this means that the Blue Devils depend on the first -year student Patrick NGOGBA II and transfer Mason Gillis For minutes in position 5 behind the starter Khaman Maluach.
Ngongba, for a first-year student who missed the pre-season due to a persistent injury from the school, took encouraging steps in its development. He collected eight seasonal points against Virginia; In Wake Forest’s match, he played a summit in the season 21 minutes.
“He just took training at such a high level,” said Scheyer about Ngongba. “An injury can occur at the start of the season where you are not playing as much … this is when relationships are formed. This is when confidence is formed.
“And so, Pat took everything our staff told him that he had to do. He addressed himself, he worked there, and I think that our staff has just done an excellent job to take him. »»
Gillis is 6-6, 225, but compensates for his lack of size in position 5 with a certain strength and a granularity as a fifth year player. With him in this position, Duke is also able to play an offense with five outings, because there is more a threat of 3 points than all the other three Duke centers.
