Duke basketball guard out at Clemson 'unless something crazy changes'

Duke basketball's Jeremy Roach likely won't play for at least another week.

With Jeremy Roach out of action nursing a toe injury on Wednesday night, freshman guard Tyrese Proctor stepped up. And so did a long list of other young Duke basketball players, exhibiting impressive resilience in erasing an 11-point halftime deficit to tally a 77-69 defeat of the visiting Pitt Panthers (11-6, 4-2 ACC).

So one could argue the No. 24 Blue Devils (13-4, 4-2 ACC) benefit in the long run from Roach's absence due to other leaders and playmakers having to emerge when the group's back is against the ropes. Plus, it's worth pointing out that Duke is now 3-0 in games he hasn't played.

Still, there's no doubt the team wants its junior guard and lone captain back to full strength as soon as possible.

That said, as first-year head coach Jon Scheyer reminded the media after the win, he isn't rushing Roach's recovery. On that note, it sounds unlikely that the 21-year-old will be on the court for Duke's road test against the Clemson Tigers (14-3, 6-0 ACC) at 5 p.m. ET Saturday.

"Unless something crazy changes, [Roach] won't be available for Saturday either," Scheyer said. "We want to make sure that he's back 100 percent before he comes back. But the thing we've talked about is that we're a man down still, so we have to step up even more. And really, I thought everybody did that.

"Tyrese, the job that he did, to be a freshman in this game and have five assists and no turnovers is a big deal for us...[He] just got us under control, and we're going to need him to continue to do that, even when Jeremy comes back."

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— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 12, 2023

After the bout at Clemson, the Blue Devils don't play again until the following Saturday when they host the Miami Hurricanes.

Therefore, assuming no "crazy changes" in Roach's status before Saturday, he will have several weeks' worth of rust to shake off by the time he suits up again. His last appearance was in Duke's 84-60 road loss to the NC State Wolfpack on Jan. 4.

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Wednesday night marked Jeremy Roach's second straight absence and third overall in the past five weeks, each resulting from his lingering toe injury, which he initially sustained during the loss to the Purdue Boilermakers in late November. Once again, he sat on the Duke basketball bench while wearing a protective boot on his right foot.

Despite a few shaky outings across the past month, Roach is still averaging a career-high 11.9 points in the 14 games he's played.

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