Duke won the ACC Tournament title with an undermanned unit, navigating its way through Charlotte without starting point guard Caleb Foster and starting center Patrick Ngongba. Foster is not expected to be back anytime soon after fracturing his foot in the regular season finale, but Ngongba appears to be on the brink of a return in the NCAA Tournament.
Leading up to Duke’s unnerving first-round win over 16th-seeded Siena, 71-65 in Greenville, South Carolina on Thursday afternoon, Scheyer told the media, We're going to keep taking it day by day, and he's itching to play. We're not quite there for tomorrow yet."
Taking Scheyer at his word, Ngongba wasn’t ready to play on Thursday as Duke stumbled through an upset scare. Reading between the lines of his comments since Ngongba appeared at the ACC Tournament in a walking boot, however, it seems that Scheyer was attempting to buy his star big man a few extra days to recover before he rejoined the lineup on Saturday against TCU.
That gamble was easy to justify with only the MAAC Champions standing in the way of the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed reaching the Round of 32, but it’s one that very nearly blew up in his face.
Duke hardly survived Siena’s upset scare without Patrick Ngongba
Gerry McNamara’s Saints stormed out to a 43-32 halftime lead. It was the first time in tournament history that a 16-seed led a No. 1 seed by double-digits at halftime, and Siena built that lead, surprisingly, on an impressive display from the interior.
In the first half, Siena outscored Duke 22-16 in the paint, and the Saints finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. Duke blocked just three shots, two of which came courtesy of 6-foot-8 wing Dame Sarr, who, despite his seven-foot wingspan, is not a traditional rim protector.
Cameron Boozer was the national player of the year, and Maliq Brown, who replaced Ngongba in the starting lineup, was the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year. Yet, Boozer lacks vertical explosiveness, and Brown sacrifices two inches to the 6-foot-11 Ngongba, who averaged over a block a game this year. Without him, Duke lacked the back-line rim protection that has bolstered the country’s No. 2-rated defense by KenPom.
Even without Ngongba, Duke should have run Siena out of the gym. After winning the ACC Tournament without him, even a TCU matchup should be manageable, but after Thursday, it looks as though he could have a tough time reaching the second weekend without him. So, Duke fans better hope that Scheyer was being extra cautious with his big man and that he’ll be ready to return on Saturday.