Duke Basketball: Potential impact if Dariq Whitehead’s injury is serious

We’re just a couple of months away from the upcoming college basketball season and the biggest concern for both teams and fans is that injuries can occur. One program that already has a history of that is Duke Basketball, which sweated five-star freshman AJ Griffin suffering a lower leg injury that took a while to fully recover and get back into gear.

Griffin ended up not missing any games last season but didn’t have a big role starting out, coming off the bench and not producing much in the first eight games. The forward didn’t get back into the starting lineup until January 12th against Wake Forest, where he scored 22 points. He started ever since and had some big performances, eventually getting drafted in the 1st round of the 2022 NBA Draft.

I’m bringing this up because the Blue Devils are now going through this again with an incoming five-star freshman wing in Dariq Whitehead. He’s a top-5 overall recruit and a 6’5 wing/shooting guard with explosive offensive potential.

Rightfully so, Whitehead has plenty of hype and could be the leading scorer for Duke this upcoming season. But recovery from foot surgery doesn’t provide an exact timetable and even then, it takes time to get the fitness going since he won’t be able to run on a healing foot.

The Blue Devils have come out and said that they expect him back in the Fall, which would set up a November timetable. But Whitehead could very well miss the first couple of games this season, including the Champions Classic matchup against reigning national champion Kansas on the 15th.

So what will Duke do if they won’t have Whitehead available or less than 100% to start the season? Here are a few takeaways from this news.