Dariq Whitehead OUT again for Duke's game at Miami

Duke basketball will once again be without one of its premier freshmen as the Blue Devils travel to take on Miami tonight. According to ESPN college hoops insider Jeff Borzello, forward Dariq Whitehead will miss his fourth straight game due to a leg injury. Here was Borzello’s report, which he posted to Twitter:

“Dariq Whitehead is out again tonight for Duke, per the school.”

During Duke’s loss at Virginia Tech two weeks ago, Whitehead went down with an apparent lower leg injury. As Whitehead went up for the ball on a play in the second half, he appeared to come down awkwardly on his left leg. After the Hokies scored on the play, Whitehead quickly hobbled back to the Blue Devil side of the court to be looked at by the trainers. As he sat court-side, the Duke freshman appeared to be in a tremendous amount of pain and was eventually ruled out for the rest of the game.

A few days later and it seemed Whitehead would be back in the lineup at some point soon, though Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer says he’d miss at least one more game. Well, after today, he’ll now have missed the last three since injuring the leg. A concerning development that the timeline keeps getting pushed back — however, Coach Scheyer remains optimistic about a timely return.

Alas, no Whitehead for the Blue Devils’ trip to Miami to face a surging ‘Canes squad. The rookie was averaging 8.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game before going down.

This isn’t the first time Whitehead has dealt with injury issues, either. He suffered a foot injury prior to the season and complications from that recovery sidelined him for a few games earlier in the year. But that injury was to his right foot, while this one is to his left leg — so there aren’t any concerns the two are connected.