Duke basketball: Another injury to a Blue Devil freshman
By Matt Giles
Duke basketball rookie forward AJ Griffin may be out for more than a month.
On cue, Duke basketball once again has a setback of the injury-to-star-freshman variety. According to a tweet on Saturday afternoon from Brendan Marks of The Athletic, sources within the program have confirmed that small forward AJ Griffin is now out “4-6 weeks” after dislocating his knee on Friday.
This reported timetable suggests that Griffin, a projected starter for the 2021-22 Blue Devils who finished at No. 17 overall on the 247Sports 2021 Composite, will likely miss the Nov. 9 Champions Classic bout against Kentucky in Madison Square Garden.
Other Duke basketball events AJ Griffin may miss
Despite word of no significant ligament damage, the 6-foot-6 five-star appears almost sure to miss Countdown to Craziness this Friday and the Oct. 30 exhibition game in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Winston-Salem State.
On that note, consider the missed practices plus the possible precautions once AJ Griffin is back.
Yes, as Duke fans have witnessed over the years, extensions to injury timetables (see: Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum) plus lingering effects following returns (see: Harry Giles, Marques Bolden) are nowadays all too commonplace among heralded newcomers in Durham.
Simply put, this Griffin news isn’t the type of news that Blue Devil enthusiasts want to hear but is precisely the type of news that they have pretty much come to expect to hear, especially around this time of year.
Fortunately for Mike Krzyzewski’s 42nd and final Duke basketball team, following the Kentucky game, the next five outings take place at home and versus the following opponents: Army, Campbell, Gardner-Webb, Lafayette, and The Citadel.
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Then on Nov. 26, the squad will face reigning national runner-up Gonzaga at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Fingers crossed that AJ Griffin is fully healthy by that juncture.