Matthew Hurt, Henry Coleman Suffer Injuries For Duke

Two Blue Devils have minor ailments a week before opener

Duke opens its season next week, but the Blue Devils are currently battling injury trouble with two key contributors.

Sophomore forward Matthew Hurt has been sidelined with an unspecified “minor injury.”

“Matt is actually doing well,” assistant coach Chris Carrawell said. “He worked out yesterday for about 45 minutes prior to practice. He looks good. He was able to practice yesterday, actually, until he had to leave and go take a final, but he’s doing better.”

Meanwhile, freshman power forward Henry Coleman has a sprained ankle.

“Henry twisted his ankle a little bit,” Carrawell said. “He’s a tough guy, but right now, you just want to make sure that they’re 100 percent. If we needed him to play—both of those guys—they could play if it was a game today. We’ve got to just make sure they’re 100 percent healthy.”

The down time for Hurt and Coleman has allowed other players to come to the forefront.

“The guy that I’ve seen that’s stepped up the most, in my opinion, is Jalen Johnson,” Carrawell said. “He’s starting to come around. He kind of started off a little slow early in the preseason, but now you’re starting to see his talent start to evolve a little bit—just making plays, extremely versatile, really good athlete, transition, him getting downhill. He has been great for us. He’s a great passer now. He turns it over a little bit, but he can make some plays with the pass that I didn’t know coming in. You see him, you don’t think about him being a playmaker.”