Duke’s Jon Scheyer provides intriguing Tyrese Proctor injury update
Tyrese Proctor’s injury status is unclear.
Like most of ACC play, Tuesday night wasn’t super stressful for Duke basketball. Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils rolled into Miami and crushed the Hurricanes 97-60 to move to 16-1 in conference play and stay on track for the regular season ACC title.
Despite the lopsided score, it wasn’t all good for Duke in Coral Gables. During the game, starting guard Tyrese Proctor got hit in the knee and left the game with an injury. He did not return.
After Duke’s win, Scheyer didn’t have much of an update on Proctor’s status, via Rodd Baxley of the Fayetteville Observer.
“He’s tough. He got hit on the leg and we gotta get him some imaging, but we’ll go from there,” Scheyer said, per Baxley.
Before leaving the game, Proctor had seven points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 14 minutes.
Duke may not need Proctor throughout the rest of the regular season against a relatively soft ACC schedule, but having the veteran point guard on the court is a must for a team that is considered one of the favorites to cut down the nets in early April. The junior provides a sense of steadiness and leadership for a roster that relies heavily on freshmen for a large chunk of its production.
While Proctor’s intangibles are very important for Duke, his statistical output is also crucial for this Blue Devils squad. He entered Tuesday’s game third on the team in scoring with 12 points per game while shooting over 40% from 3-point range.
Defensively, the 6-foot-6 Australian is a big part of Duke’s supersized starting lineup that is extremely disruptive to try and score against. He has the ability to bother ball handlers with his length on the perimeter, and the Blue Devils would likely miss him the most on that end of the floor if he is forced to miss time.
At this point, Duke most likely has a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament locked up barring multiple bad losses. In that case, Scheyer and company will have the luxury of being cautious with Proctor, but this Duke basketball team will want to keep a close eye on him in order to get him back by the postseason.
