Will Duke basketball get injured Maliq Brown back this season? An update from Jon Scheyer
While the medical reports on Maliq Brown’s shoulder injury were generally positive, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said his No. 3 Blue Devils must be ready to play without their top reserve for the near future.
“I’d say it’s a few weeks,” Scheyer said Thursday, “but Maliq will do whatever he can to get back on the floor. I’m just we’re happy the fact that we didn’t see anything crazy in there, just what you would normally see from a dislocated shoulder. So he’ll attack rehab with our medical team, and we’ll get him back as soon as we can, while still being really smart about not rushing this at all with him. We need him back fully healthy.”
Scheyer said Brown is expected to return at some point this season. That could be in the ACC Tournament, at Charlotte from March 11-15, or in the NCAA Tournament the following week.
“I think we’re optimistic that we can get them back this season,” Scheyer said. “I think the hardest part is, a lot of it has to do with his stability, which, right now, he’s pretty sore still, so we have to see how much time that takes.”
Brown suffered a dislocated shoulder Monday night in Duke’s 80-62 win at Virginia. The injury occurred with 1:21 remaining in the first half when Brown, while playing defense, reached with his left arm and deflected a pass. He immediately grabbed his shoulder and upper triceps area on his left arm in pain.
It’s the third injury Brown has suffered this season, having missed a December game due to a toe injury and four January games because of a sprained knee.
His rather pedestrian statistics (2.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 1.6 assists per game) belie his greater impact for the Blue Devils — particularly on the defensive end. He’s played 17.4 minutes per game and is routinely Duke’s first reserve off the bench.
“Maliq’s a different player than anybody on our team,” Scheyer said. “What he brings to the table is different than anybody else. So obviously you have to adjust somewhat based on who you’re playing. Mainly, it’s his versatility on defense.”
Duke (23-3, 15-1 ACC) plays its final regular-season, nonconference game Saturday at 8 p.m. against Illinois at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils return to league play on Tuesday night at last-place Miami (6-20, 2-13 ACC).
After that, the Blue Devils play home ACC games with Florida State (16-10, 7-8 ACC) on March 1 and Wake Forest (19-7, 11-4 ACC) on March 3 before closing the regular season on March 8 at North Carolina (16-11, 9-6 ACC).
No matter how the teams just behind Duke in the standings fare, the Blue Devils need wins in at least three of their final four ACC games to clinch at least a share of the league regular-season title, which would be the program’s second in the last four seasons. Duke last won the regular season in 2022 during Mike Krzyzewski’s final season as head coach.
To get the needed wins without Brown, Scheyer said 6-11 freshman center Pat Ngongba will be an important factor to help spell 7-2 freshman center Khaman Maluach in the post.
“Look, we have incredible confidence in Pat,” Scheyer said. “We also know we have versatility with different lineups we can go to.....Pat, Khaman, Cooper (Flagg), Mason (Gillis), all those guys are pretty versatile with what they do, especially in the defensive end. At the end of the day, we just know we have to pick Maliq up.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 12:30 PM.