There's no way to prepare for the biggest plot twist of the college basketball season, but a month ago, Duke was at least able to run a few fire drills.
After an eye poke forced Zion Williamson to miss the entire second half of the Blue Devils' Jan. 12 trip to Florida State, his teammates pulled out a thrilling 80–78 win in his absence. Two days later, Williamson was back in the lineup at home against Syracuse, but it was point guard Tre Jones's turn to leave with an early injury, suffering a sprained AC joint that his teammates could not overcome in a 95–91 overtime loss.