College basketball rankings: Can Duke maintain its No. 2 ranking in the Top 25 And 1 without Zion?
Duke freshman Zion Williamson will not play Saturday night at Syracuse. But the good news is that college basketball’s best player, and biggest star, is not seriously injured. It really is just a minor knee sprain.
So he’ll be back soon.
But if the Blue Devils are going to avoid their first two-game losing streak of the season, they’ll have to be better in his absence at the Carrier Dome than they were in the 39 minutes they played without Williamson against North Carolina earlier in the week because they were bad and out of sorts in that one.
It’s why they lost 88-72.
Either way, the guess here is that Duke will look much different, and be much better, at Syracuse because Mike Krzyzewski has now had a chance to conduct multiple practices to prepare his team to play without its 6-foot-7 forward. That’s massive. Plus, the Blue Devils won’t be dealing with the shock-factor that goes along with losing a key component in the opening minute of a high-profile game against a rival with the 44th President of the United States sitting courtside. So I’ll be surprised if Duke loses at the Carrier Dome. The game might be close. But the Blue Devils should win and go to bed Saturday night in nothing worse than a first-place tie with Virginia and North Carolina atop the ACC standings.
Duke is No. 2 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Gonzaga is No. 1 for the seventh straight day. The Zags will play BYU late Saturday night.
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