The 2024-25 Duke basketball roster includes only two scholarship centers in the 7-foot-2, 250-pound Khaman Maluach and 6-foot-11, 250-pound Patrick Ngongba II.
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Both are rookies, albeit of the composite five-star variety. And Ngongba has yet to make his on-court debut in Durham while working to rehab foot injuries that sidelined him as a senior at Paul VI Catholic High School (Va.) last season.
Eventually, Ngongba should be fully recovered from setbacks in the foot department — surgery on his right foot last December plus lingering issues with his left foot — and become part of the rotation down low, at least to some extent.
For now, though, there’s no telling when that day will come.
“I wish Pat was out there today,” third-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer said during his press conference on Saturday following the squad’s first of two scheduled preseason outings. “He’s doing well. He’s now jumping a little bit. But he still is a ways away, and it would be wrong for me to put a timeline on it because our priority is getting him 100 percent and getting him back and healthy and ready to go.
“We’re attacking it with a crazy urgency. But I can’t put a timeline on it.”
Fortunately for Scheyer’s No. 7-ranked Blue Devils, junior forward Maliq Brown has sufficient length, strength, and experience to occupy the five-spot. That was the case in Duke’s 107-56 home exhibition win over Division II Lincoln (Pa.).
Brown drew the starting nod over Maluach against the Lions. However, Maluach logged 20 minutes in the contest, one more than Brown.
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