The Duke Basketball team has been without its point guard, Tre Jones, for over a week, but a cryptic Instagram post hints at a possible return.
The Duke Blue Devils have been without their point guard and defensive leader, Tre Jones, since he injured his shoulder on January 14 against the Syracuse Orange, but if any Duke fans were up late on Thursday night, some positive news may have been hinted at in an Instagram post.
At 11:17 pm ET, Tre Jones posted this on his Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtCzdJ0ngmJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The post could hint at a possible return with the ‘thumbs up’, ‘praying’, and ‘happy face’ emojis.
Teammate and captain Javin DeLaurier commented on the post with two of his own ‘praying’ emojis and the official Duke Men’s Basketball Instagram page along with the other captain, Jack White, commented with two of the ‘eyes’ emojis, which symbolizes excitement of something that is about to happen.
Jones was diagnosed with an AC joint separation, but at what looked like could have been a season-ending injury, Mike Krzyzewski told reporters that it was not as serious as it looked and that Jones would be back “sooner rather than later”.
When Jones went down with the injury six minutes into the game on January 14 against Syracuse, the Blue Devils were leading 12-4 but ended up losing to the Orange in overtime.
Since that game, Duke has won both of its games, defeating then No. 4 Virginia on Saturday and a road game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
On the season, Tre Jones is averaging 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 2.1 steals per game for the Blue Devils and has emerged as one of the best defenders in the country.
Associate Head Coach Jon Scheyer said on the Duke Basketball Podcast that Tre was “doing great.”
Scheyer updated Jones’ status further on the podcast by saying, “He’s more day to day than long term. But he’s been attacking his rehab. He’s starting to do more on the court and, obviously, we want to get him back as soon as possible.”
While no official word has been issued by the Duke Basketball team on if Jones has been cleared to return to game action, the Blue Devils will return to the court on Saturday afternoon against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at 12:00 pm ET from Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The game can be seen on the ACC Network.