Jon Scheyer provides health update on Dariq Whitehead
Duke freshman Dariq Whitehead has been in and out of the Blue Devil’s lineup all season. Whether it be for illness or lingering injury, the former five-star and No. 2 player in On3’s Consensus Rankings has missed five of his team’s 21 games this season.
Now, ahead of their matchup against Wake Forest on Tuesday, Jon Scheyer says Whitehead may miss another. Per Brendan Marks of The Athletic, Scheyer said Whitehead had ‘a really good day’ working out on Sunday but that, unless he practices sometime between now and tipoff tomorrow evening, he will miss his second consecutive game.
Whitehead has averaged 8.4 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in just over 20 minutes per game. He had actually started to find his footing in Duke’s lineup with six double-figure scoring games in his last eight. However, continuing to miss games, which this time is related to a leg injury he suffered at Virginia Tech, isn’t doing him or his team any favors.
All they can hope for now is some progress on the practice floor within the next 24 hours so Whitehead can return to the lineup for the Blue Devils.
WATCH: College GameDay crew dissects what’s wrong with basketball blue bloods
The ESPN College GameDay crew questioned what was wrong with the basketball blue bloods, such as Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Duke. Kansas lost three in a row and other three are currently out of the AP Poll Top 25.
But what can change the course for the blue bloods? It sounds like they have to navigate an intriguing college basketball field.
“It’s a question of dominance,” Jay Bilas said. “I think over the years and the decades we’ve been used to those four teams being dominant in college basketball in the last couple of years, they haven’t been dominant…When you look at their rosters? Count the lottery picks, there aren’t as many as they’ve had in the past. Now part of that is their individual recruiting and part of it is the transfer portal part of it is NIL.
“Everybody says they want the talent more spread out. It’s more spread out now. And it’s going to be more difficult but they’re still really good and they are still factors, just not dominant factors like we’ve seen in the past.”
“Yeah, I totally agree,” Seth Greenberg said. “There are the blue bloods. And now there are some new bloods because of what you just said, in terms of transfer portal, NIL. The best players in college basketball are spread out through the landscape today. But we get caught up in the Blue Bloods. But there are other shades of colors that play pretty good basketball. You’re looking at it: 133 unranked teams have beaten ranked teams. So like how’s it happening?
“I think it’s more difficult, it’s more static around college basketball, more good teams are losing games…Why? Static, parental pressure, peer pressure, social media, NIL. It’s harder to keep your teams focused during the course of the season.”
“Here’s the deal. All these teams and all these coaches need to focus on the finish line. Worry about your team today. Get better because, at the end of the year, that’s really when you’re gonna be judged.”