Getty Duke's Zion Williamson
The outlook for Duke Blue Devils star Zion Williamson could have been far worse than it turned out to be. After a fluke injury in which the freshman phenom broke through his shoe just over 30 seconds into the team’s last game, he went down holding his knee. The college basketball world briefly froze due to the scene, and Williamson proceeded to head to the bench and then the locker room after a bit of time on the floor.
Fortunately, it proved to be an injury that will not end his season, nor will it put his future in any type of jeopardy. The play was almost unbelievable to see, as Williamson attempted to put on the brakes early against the North Carolina Tar Heels and burst straight through the shoe.
After Zion was ruled out for the rest of the game, there was a positive update when the game had wrapped up. In turn, this led to a huge sigh of relief from the Duke faithful and really all basketball fans.
Zion Williamson Diagnosed With Sprained Knee
Mike Krzyzewski addressed the injury, revealing the Duke star had suffered a mild knee sprain and that his knee is stable, per Tim Reynolds and the Associated Press. Fortunately, the following day, Duke offered a similar update, revealing that he was diagnosed with a Grade 1 right knee sprain and is considered day-to-day.
NEWS: Zion Williamson was diagnosed with a Grade 1 right knee sprain. He is progressing as expected, and his status is day-to-day.
The outlook could have been drastically worse, as seen in the video above. While there’s been no official timeline set for the freshman’s potential return, one thing has been decided, and it’s that he’ll miss at least one game.
Zion Williamson Ruled Out for Duke vs. Syracuse
On Friday morning, Stadium’s Jeff Goodman provided the update on Williamson’s status for Saturday’s game against the Syracuse Orange. Although it seems that he’s progressing well, Zion will not suit up for the ACC matchup.
Duke’s Zion Williamson will not play tomorrow at Syracuse, source told @Stadium. Suffered knee injury against North Carolina and is listed as day-to-day with a Grade 1 knee sprain.
This is the second meeting between the two teams this season, with the first coming back in mid-January at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Syracuse pulled off a surprising 95-91 overtime win, but Duke was without Cam Reddish and Tre Jones left the game due to injury after just six minutes.
In that game, Williamson poured in 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting with 10 rebounds and four blocks. The Blue Devils will have Reddish and Jones for this game, and they will be asked to do the heavy lifting along with fellow freshman star RJ Barrett, who had a big stat line in the loss. Barrett nearly triple-doubled against the Orange in the last meeting, scoring 23 points with 16 rebounds and nine assists.
READ NEXT: Zion Williamson NBA Comparison: Mixing LeBron James With Other Stars