The Duke Blue Devils play their 10th game of the 2024-25 season and their third game in seven days on Tuesday night against Incarnate Word, so naturally, we’ve reached the point in the season when injuries start to emerge.
Duke stayed relatively healthy for the first month of the campaign, but the team announced its first major absence of the year when it declared Maliq Brown out with a toe injury against the Cardinals.
The Syracuse transfer has already made himself an indispensable part of the Blue Devils rotation. He hasn’t started a game yet, but he averaged 21.0 minutes across the first nine contests and led the team with 1.9 steals. He’s anchored the defensive end of the floor, constantly breaking up opposing plays and helping hold Auburn Tigers star Johni Broome to five points in the first half last week.
Here’s everything we know about Brown’s injury ahead of the midweek game against UIW.
How long will Maliq Brown be out?
The team ruled Brown day-to-day with his injury. Considering that the Blue Devils won’t play again until December 17 after Tuesday’s game, odds seem likely he’ll only miss the one night.
Duke forward depth chart
With Brown unavailable, five-star freshman [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] will probably play more minutes than usual. The South Sudanese 7-footer has started all nine games for the Blue Devils, but he’s only played 17.3 minutes per night. Maluach hasn’t seen the floor for more than 15 minutes since the November 26 game against Kansas, but he’ll certainly jump over 20 minutes against UIW.
Fellow freshman Pat Ngognba II, another center in the 2024 recruiting class, will also probably play in Brown’s absence, but head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] said Ngongba will be held on a strict minute count for his entire freshman season as he battles a foot injury.