Duke’s Tre Jones suffered an AC joint separation in a shocking loss at home to Syracuse. Early in the first half, Jones stole the ball from Paschal Chukwu under the Syracuse basket and subsequently got tangled with Frank Howard as he started to charge downcourt. Jones, the starting point guard, hit the floor hard and was in dire pain immediately. Duke wasn’t the same team as RJ Barrett and Jared Goldwire had to assume ball-handling duties against a pesky Syracuse team. Also, the Blue Devils were already without the services of Cam Reddish (savior of the FSU game) who was battling an illness.
The positive news that Jones didn’t break his collarbone as feared and likely has the ability to come back this season. Duke will look to give back up point guard, Goldwire more minutes along with getting more contributions from the trio of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish. In addition, sophomore Alex O’Connell will need to step. O’Connell poured in 16 points in the loss to Syracuse.
Official word from Duke release is Tre Jones has an AC joint separation and is out indefinitely. Unofficially he’s the one player who can’t be replaced on this roster. Will be a tough go vs UVA on Saturday without him
— C.L. Brown (@clbrownhoops) January 15, 2019
The loss of Duke’s floor general, Tre Jones, during the daunting ACC schedule will hurt from both a defensive standpoint and in the assist to turnover ratio. Luckily, Duke has potentially three lottery picks that can help pick up the slack during the daunting ACC slate.
