Duke guard Jeremy Roach leaves Purdue game with foot injury

Duke guard Jeremy Roach left Sunday’s game against Purdue with what appeared to be an injury to hit foot. Roach was injured while going for a loose ball and left the game for quick evaluation. Roach received an oral medication, returned to the game, but then fell to the ground in pain again, resulting in him leaving and going to the locker room.

Following a halftime break, Roach was seen on the floor with the Blue Devils, which is a big help for their leadership. Roach is in the third year of his career at Duke and is the Blue Devils’ second-leading scorer, putting up 12.7 points per game. Roach is also contributing 3.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game.

The Blue Devils trailed Purdue by 11 points at the halftime break of the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy tournament. Duke got to this point after scoring 21 points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out five assists against Xavier in the semifinal game on Friday. After that game, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer spoke about what Roach brings to the floor.

“Jeremy and I spoke and my thing was ‘play instinctually. Just be you’. He’s in a tough spot where he has a lot on his shoulder,” Scheyer said. “We need him, what did he play today — 35 minutes? We need him to score, to create, to defend the other team’s best player. [Souley] Boum today was the best player for them. And there’s a lot that falls on your shoulders, so you end up, you can overthink it a little bit. And the thing that I loved for him today was he was just him. And when he’s that way, to me, he’s the best guard in the country. He controlled the whole game, created for others. He had five assists, I actually thought he could’ve had eight, nine assists, we missed a couple bunnies that he dumped off. But really proud of him and how he responded. I think this is what we’ll see going forward from Jeremy.”