Ngongba Listed As Questionable For UNC Game
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We’ve talked before about how Duke and UNC tend to parallel each other in strange and unusual ways. They’re like the ying and yang of college basketball, and if it rains in Chapel Hill, it’s probably going to rain in Durham, too.
UNC got some seriously bad weather between Thursday and Friday. Caleb Wilson had been sort of promoted as questionable for the Duke game, but anyone who pays any attention to how UNC basketball has worked for the last 50-60 years knows the drill: a key player gets hurt. He’ll be out forever! Well, maybe not forever.
He’s really, really hurt! Actually, it’s not that bad.
They’ve done this for decades, and were about to do it again when Wilson hurt his right hand in practice Thursday. On Friday, it got X-rayed, and turns out he has a broken thumb and is done for the year.
Enter the latest Duke-UNC parallel: Pat Ngongba is questionable for Saturday’s game with an apparent foot injury.
It’s probably a bigger blow for UNC than it is for Duke. They’ve won without Wilson, but were hoping to get him back for the game in Cameron. The psychology is interesting here. Is it deflating? Or will it just piss them off?
As for Duke, Maliq Brown can fill in for Ngongba, and while he’s not exactly a big man, Nik Khamenia is a really hard-nosed kid who can help out too.
But if Ngongba can’t go, then Duke’s margin of error goes down.
