Tyrese Proctor injury diagnosed, not as serious as originally feared to be

Duke basketball veteran guard Tyrese Proctor has been diagnosed with a bone bruise in his knee with no structural damage.

According to Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, the injury is a deep bone bruise with no structural damage and it will be monitored over the next few days or weeks. There is no timetable for his return.

This is a huge break for the junior guard as it was originally feared that the injury could be much more serious than a bone bruise, potentially season-ending.

Proctor sustained the injury during the first half of the Blue Devils’ 97-60 road victory over the Miami Hurricanes on Tuesday night. As Hurricanes guard Divine Ugochukwu was out in a fast break, Proctor attempted to contest a shot at the basket, landing awkwardly on his knee and going to the ground in pain.

The veteran did not return for the remainder of the game, finishing with seven points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field.

At first glance, it was difficult to see the knee-to-knee contact between Ugochukwu and Proctor that ultimately caused the bruise, sparking concern that the knee injury came from Proctor’s landing on the floor. And when a player lands awkwardly with no contact and goes down in pain, there’s always a fright it’s extremely serious.

Although it is a blow to the Blue Devils’ lineup that Proctor will miss at least a little bit of time, knowing the program will have their leader in the backcourt for the postseason is a huge sigh of relief given the Blue Devils’ ACC and national championship aspirations.

As his timetable for return is determined, freshman Isaiah Evans and sophomore Caleb Foster will likely see their minutes increase to make up for the loss of the 29.1 minutes per game that Proctor provides.

Proctor is averaging 11.8 points per game on 43.7% shooting from the field and 40.8% shooting from three-point range this season, all career-highs.

He’s also been on a tear through the month of February and was in the midst of playing like one of the best guards in college basketball. Proctor was averaging 15.3 points per game over Duke’s eight games in February.

Duke is up next on March 1st (7:00pm ET, ACC Network) to take on Florida State (16-12, 7-10 ACC) at Cameron Indoor Stadium.