How is Duke basketball star Kyle Filipowski doing as he recovers from hip surgeries?
With his team expected to be the ACC’s best and a Final Four contender, Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer has but one looming issue about the offseason.
He’d sure like to see everyone — most notably ACC player of the year candidate Kyle Filipowski — on the court working together.
“I’m excited but I still feel like this is deja vu a little bit,” Scheyer said Wednesday, referencing last season when freshmen Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead experienced offseason injuries that caused them to miss November games.
Filipowski’s rehabilitation from his April surgery on both hips is progressing as deliberately as planned. It has him participating in 1-on-1 contact work currently, with plans to slowing ramp up the activity to 2-on-3, then 3-on-3 and the like.
“There’s no limitations other than just progressing to where he can play 5-on-5 here in the next few weeks,” Scheyer said Wednesday, calling him a “new and improved Flip.”
The 7-foot Filipowski spoke to his rehabilitation schedule in an early July appearance on the program’s “Brotherhood Podcast” with graduate student center Ryan Young. Duke began its summer practices in June with Filipowski on the court but doing most of his work on his own.
On the podcast, Filipowski said the plan was to progress to contact drills in August. He’s started that, but only in 1-on-1 situations.
Scheyer categorized Filipowski’s progress as “good” and indicated that all expectations are he’ll be a better, stronger player than a year ago.
“He can bend, he can he can move his feet, he can jump,” Scheyer said. “He’s more explosive. It’s really remarkable, when you think about the season that he had, despite not being able to move in the way that he’s capable of.”
Last season, Filipowski started every Duke game, averaging 15.1 points and 8.9 rebounds to lead the team in both categories. He was named the ACC’s rookie of the year while the Blue Devils went 27-9 and won the ACC championship.
Duke’s medical staff discovered abnormalities in the way his hips developed when he had MRI exams upon arriving on campus last summer prior to his freshman season. In the ball-and-socket hip joint, he said, the ball was shaped more like a football than a round ball.
“It restricted my range of motion when I would move certain ways,” Filipowski said, noting that he would feel pain and it caused his legs to fatigue.
The arthroscopic procedure corrected the issue and he’s able to move in ways he couldn’t previously.
“Now I’m able to extend my legs further and get deeper in a stance.,” he said.
The hope is, once he completes his rehabilitation, Filipowski will be an even better player.
“He’s told me that he feels freer, more explosive,” Scheyer said.
The only thing left is to get Filipowski into shape after being limited for so long. Duke has another five weeks before a full practice schedule in anticipation for the season to begin.
As deliberate as his rehabilitation has been, Filipowski takes solace in knowing it could have been worse. Rather than have surgery on one hip at a time, he chose to have them both worked on in the same surgery so he could in order to get back on the court quicker.
“I really am so happy with the decision I made,” Filipowski said. “I feel like a regular human with hips that can function now.”