Patrick Ngongba injury update: Jon Scheyer evaluates availability for NCAA Tournament

Duke center Patrick Ngongba missed the regular season finale and the ACC Tournament with foot soreness. But the Blue Devils are hopeful to get him back for the NCAA Tournament, head coach Jon Scheyer revealed on Sunday night.

Speaking to Field of 68, Scheyer noted that Ngongba’s recovery is going well. However, he can’t make any promises yet about when the 6-foot-11, 250-pound center will return to action.

“But he’s doing well,” Scheyer said. “The thing with this, you can’t say on Sunday that he’s ready to go on Friday because we’re being cautious with his rest. This weekend we started to ramp him up with some of his treatments and some of the things he’s doing. He’s not doing anything on the court yet.”

Getting Patrick Ngonga back will be very important to Duke’s chances to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. He’s the team’s second-leading rebounder and third-leading scorer.

Ngongba is averaging 10.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He’s also a force as a rim protector, averaging 1.1 blocks per contest.

Scheyer explained what the process will be like over the next few days. The medical staff will be in full evaluation mode on Patrick Ngongba.

“We’ll make the decision as we get a few days from now,” Scheyer said. “Not going to risk — you’re in one-and-done territory, but you’re also not going to risk anything of wanting setbacks either. So we’ll have to see how this progresses, but it’s very positive. I feel very good about how he’s feeling and the work he’s doing with our medical team.”

Duke has managed just fine without Patrick Ngongba so far, though it has had a couple close games. The team beat rival North Carolina by 15 in the regular season finale. Then it won the ACC Tournament, though it had to survive close calls against Florida State and Virginia.

Scheyer wasn’t about to undersell Ngongba’s importance to the team. He broke down what his return could mean.

“Yeah, obviously Pat for us means so much, right?” Scheyer said. “I mean he’s, to me, when you think about winning he’s been one of the 10 most impactful players in the country to me if you look at analytically where he is, his rim protection he provides for our team, his passing, his scoring. I mean, look, it’s him and Caleb (Foster), that’s two of our top four scorers, although I think we’ve shown in the last couple days we can provide for the scoring in other ways as well.”

Duke will begin NCAA Tournament play against 16-seed Siena. The game will take place on Thursday at 2:50 p.m. ET with a broadcast on CBS.