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WASHINGTON – Caleb Foster rolled out of the Duke locker room with his right foot wrapped in ice and his right knee perched atop a one-legged scooter, a bag of ice strapped and wrapped around his left calf for good measure.
Twenty days ago, Foster fractured his right foot in a win against North Carolina. In the wake of the injury, Duke coach Jon Scheyer believed Foster, a junior, had a “one-in-a-million” chance on returning this season.
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On Friday night, Foster came off the bench to score 11 points, corral three rebounds and dish out a pair of assists across 19 crucial minutes to spark the No. 1 Blue Devils’ 80-75 win against No. 5 St. John’s to reach the East Region finals.
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“Still a little stunned with what happened, to be honest with you guys, because what this guy did, to be honest, he had no business playing tonight,” Scheyer said.
“Ninety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what’s happened to him. It was incredible the way he willed us. There’s no analytics. There’s no stats that can measure how big this dude’s heart is for what he did.”
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Part Jordan flu game, part Willis Reed on one leg, Foster’s performance against the Red Storm should linger in Duke history.
“What I saw today was pretty unbelievable,” said guard Dame Sarr. “I’ve never seen something like this before. The way he played for us today, it was really unbelievable.”
Duke players found out Foster was going to play on Thursday night, though he’d come off the bench behind freshman Cayden Boozer. That fulfilled a promise he made last week: Foster told teammates he’d be back for the Sweet 16 if they were able to advance out of the opening weekend.
“He just worked his butt off every single day, every single hour,” said freshman forward Nikolas Khamenia. “Before practice, after practice, he was doing everything he could.”
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Intensive rehabbing increased Foster’s odds. But even then, he rolled into the Capital One Arena for Thursday’s open practice on his scooter and didn’t take part…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/caleb-foster-had-no-business-032323347.html
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Publish date : 2026-03-28 03:23:00
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