Duke basketball injury updates: Guards Jeremy Roach, Jaylen Blakes on the mend
No. 13-ranked Duke survived the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend but didn’t emerge physically unscathed after Sunday’s 93-55 blowout win over James Madison.
Two of Duke’s guards, starting senior Jeremy Roach and junior reserve Jaylen Blakes, suffered injuries that figure to linger into Friday night’s NCAA Tournament South Region semifinal against No. 2-ranked Houston at Dallas’ American Airlines Center.
Roach dislocated the pinkie finger on this left hand during the first half of the James Madison game. The team’s training staff treated him on the bench, re-adjusting the finger then taping it to the adjacent ring finger, which allowed him to return to the game.
Saying the finger was hurting, Roach said he had an X-ray taken of it Sunday and the result was negative for a broken bone.
“It’s all good,” Roach said. “I’ll be good for next week.”
Blakes took a scary fall during the second half when James Madison’s Noah Freidel fouled him from behind, drawing a flagrant foul call, as Blakes attempted a one-handed dunk on a breakaway. Blakes landed on his upper back and his head appeared to make contact with the court.
He was groggy as he was helped from the court to the locker room. While he didn’t return to the game, he did rejoin his teammates on the bench.
“Jaylen, that’s a scary play,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “I don’t think there was any bad intention at all. Just it’s a scary play. Obviously we have to get him examined and checked out, but I don’t know his status yet.”
With Blakes unable to continue in the game, Roach shot the free throws for him. Blakes was not available for interviews after the game as he received additional medical attention.
“I was definitely worried about him,” Roach said. “But he came back to the bench smiling, so it was all good.”
The play occurred with Duke leading 76-46 and 8:29 to play. The game officials immediately signaled for an intentional foul and then used replay to review the play and determine it was a Flagrant 1 foul. A Flagrant 2 foul would have caused Freidel’s ejection.
“He was going up after the ball so I wouldn’t even say it was kind of a dirty play,” said Roach, one of Duke’s three captains. “Obviously you don’t have to go up like that and kind of conk him in the head like that. But we just didn’t want to get into anything. We were already up 30. We just wanted to keep the clock moving and get this thing over with.”
Despite the finger injury to his non-shooting hand, Roach played 34 minutes. He scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting while collecting six assists.
Blakes played only five minutes, scoring two points.
The two guards’ availability is of extra importance for No. 4 seed Duke (26-8) as it prepares to face the South Region’s top seed, Houston. Duke is already without guard Caleb Foster for the rest of the season due to a stress fracture in his ankle that’s sidelined him since late February.
The Blue Devils need Roach, who starts along with sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor and freshman guard Jared McCain, as well as Blakes to give them ball-handling depth.
This story was originally published March 25, 2024 at 12:30 PM.