Senior forward Lance Thomas’s right knee injury appears to be only a severe bone bruise, the Duke men’s basketball program said in a statement minutes ago.
Thomas left last night’s game against North Carolina early in the second half after banging knees with Tar Heel guard Larry Drew II, and while Drew looked to be in some pain, Thomas collapsed to the ground as trainers rushed across the court. Thomas left the game and did not return.
The statement said Thomas is doubtful for the Blue Devils’ next contest with Maryland this weekend, but the fact that the injury doesn’t involve any knee ligaments is certainly good news for Duke.
There’s been no timetable set for the senior’s return, but for comparison’s sake, former Villanova guard Dwayne Anderson suffered a similar injury last year–actually, on Feb. 10, the exact same day as Thomas–and played 19 minutes in his team’s next game, three days later.
I’m no doctor and have no idea about the relative severity of Thomas’s injury, but The Chronicle will continue to monitor his situation as Duke enters the home-stretch of the conference season.
I still don’t want him to log as many minutes after he recovers as he did before the injury. Playing the Plumlees is the way to go if Duke wants to go far. LT and Z00b playing major minutes means a second-round exit. So, in a sense, I’m happy this happened. Happy that LT isn’t hurt too badly, but also happy that the injury FINALLY forced Coach K’s hand to do what he’s been VERY reluctant to do, even as it was as plain as day to every Duke fan.
While the Plumlees’ are the future Thomas will be missed on the defensive end of the court. If he does in fact miss the Maryland game the Blue Devils will be hard pressed to defend Vasquez. Thomas has turned into a defensive asset this year, while he doesn’t get the spectacular blocks he usually can contain the other teams inside threats.
I dont think we should be happy that LT is out, he is the vocal leader and maybe the best defender on the team. I do agree that the Plumlee’s are the way to go (Mason is figuring it out, Miles is just lost), but I don’t think LT is near as big of a problem as Zoubs is getting those minutes. Zoubs is just a clutz but he’s a good rebounder and nothing else. LT is a big part of this team if you ask me, I’m glad it isn’t worse!
LT’s defensive presence will be sorely missed. He shut down Booker and Favors for us before and I don’t think we have any other guys are as versatile on defense.
I do think that the one thing we may see K be ‘forced’ to do as a result of this is play the Plumlees TOGETHER. They both seem a lot more confident and comfortable when they are out there together.