How Caleb Foster’s return to game action proved Elite for Duke basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Foster returned after surgery and scored 11 second-half points.
- His ball-handling and voice stabilized Duke during the comeback.
- Foster’s return helped Duke reach the East Region final and add depth.
When Caleb Foster fractured his right foot on March 7, the final day of Duke’s regular season schedule, he heard Duke’s medical staff say he could return in two weeks.
He swears he did.
“When I first got hurt,” Foster said Friday night, “he said two weeks, and that’s where my mind has been ever since.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer remembers it differently.
“Nobody said two weeks,” a smiling Scheyer shot back at his junior guard. “You heard two weeks.”
Real or imagined, Foster hit the timeline and Duke’s wildly successful season rolls on because of his persistence.
Playing on a night his coach said he had “no business playing,” after an injury that usually needs two months, not two weeks of recovery, Foster scored all 11 of his points in the second half, while playing a turnover-free 18 minutes, leading Duke to an 80-75 comeback win over St. John’s at Capital One Arena.
Duke’s NCAA Tournament win pushed the Blue Devils (35-2) into Sunday’s East Region final against Connecticut, which outlasted Michigan State on Friday night. For the third consecutive year, the extent of Foster’s career, they find themselves one win from the Final Four.
They all agree they wouldn’t be there without Foster, who wheeled around postgame on his knee scooter with ice packed around his still-healing foot.
“What he did,” an emotional Scheyer said, “it was a surreal thing to coach. I really felt like he was going to will us to victory, and that’s what he did.”
Duke is No. 1, but had to get healthy
Duke entered the postseason ranked No. 1, but did so without Foster or sophomore center Pat Ngongba, who also had a foot injury. Neither played as Duke won the ACC Tournament. Neither played as the Blue Devils stumbled their way to a 71-65 win over No. 16 seed Siena to open NCAA Tournament play.
Ngongba returned with 13 uneven minutes in an 81-58, second-round win over TCU that set up Friday night’s regional semifinal with No. 5 seed St. John’s.
That left Foster to work his magic along with Duke’s medical staff. The 6-5 guard needed surgery on March 8, the day after he landed awkwardly on his right foot and was injured during Duke’s 76-61 win over North Carolina.
“I was real stunned,” Foster said Friday night “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to bounce back from that, but as soon as the doctor told me that it’s a chance, I just took it and ran with it. That’s where my mindset has been from here on out.
“I wanted to come out and provide anything possible, experience, whatever the team needed. I didn’t know what we needed or what to expect, but just providing a boost out there any way I can.”
He provided a boost alright. Even as teammates Isaiah Evans (25 points) and Cameron Boozer (22 points, 10 rebounds) delivered the bulk of the scoring, Foster’s contributions were crucial to Duke erasing a 10-point, second-half deficit against St. John’s.
“It was huge for sure,” Boozer said. “The biggest thing in games like this is finding a way to win. Just his voice, his competitive spirit really uplifted us. That was a huge part why we went on a run was him talking to us, getting us going, getting downhill and being himself, being confident.
“I think the biggest thing is the competitiveness he brings to our team is a huge deal for us for sure.”
Overcoming St. John’s
Buoyed by a 13-0 run, St. John’s turned its 40-39 halftime lead into a 55-45 advantage with 15:01 to play. Foster promptly scored Duke’s next seven points. When Boozer added a layup inside to end Foster’s scoring streak, the Blue Devils had trimmed the Red Storm’s lead to 57-54 with 11:57 to play.
“He’s a special kid who had a special, special moment,” Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell said.
Foster had more moments to come, even though Scheyer had only hoped to play him for 8-10 minutes in his return.
His ball-handling against St. John’s pressure stabilized things for the Blue Devils. That allowed freshman point guard Cayden Boozer, who took on more and more minutes in Foster’s absence, to get more breaks.
After St. John’s took a 69-67 lead, Evans put Duke in front for good with a 3-pointer with 3:54 to play. A Boozer three-point play, including a free throw, pushed the Blue Devils lead to 73-69.
Foster took things from there. His jumper at 2:14 gave Duke a 75-69 lead. Zuby Ejiofor hit a 3-pointer to give St. John’s hope, but Foster answered right back, driving in to the lane and converting a layup with 1:27 left giving Duke a 77-72 lead.
Boozer and Evans finished it from there with three free throws and were glad to credit their gutsy teammate.
“Caleb has been a leader for us since day one,” Evans said. “Just him coming back just gave us a tremendous boost, insurmountable confidence even though we had high confidence anyway. And obviously he’s another body that can give us time to rest. So Caleb coming back did a lot for us tonight.”
Cayden Boozer declared it an off-the-charts performance.
“I would rank it a 12 out of 10,” Cayden Boozer said. “The fact he just had surgery, to be able to come back this quick and play with the confidence and to not overthink his game at all was super impressive.”
The moments Foster wanted at Duke
It’s the kind of opportunity Foster craved when he committed to Duke at age 16. It’s an opportunity had in mind, but was denied, as a freshman when he missed Duke’s run to the 2024 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight due to stress fracture in the same foot he injured this year.
He helped Duke reach the Final Four a year ago, only to suffer with the rest of the team when late lead disappeared in a 70-67 national semifinal loss to Houston.
Having endured all of that, Foster would not be denied an opportunity to add to Duke’s storied basketball lore.
“Since I was a kid, I watched Duke winning national championships,” Foster said, “and I always dreamed of being a part of it. Whatever I could do to provide a boost to these guys to help us come out with a win.”
After he’d discussed and dissected his performance against St. John’s on Friday night, Foster returned to the Duke training room for more treatment. When Michigan State and UConn were at halftime, Foster rolled through the arena’s bowels on his scooter, on his way to rejoin his teammates and prepare for Sunday’s regional final.
He left many of them in awe.
“This is incredible,” Carrawell said. “I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that. And then for him to play the way he did, just to play, then to play the way he did. I mean, he saved us.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 7:00 PM.