Following a terrible New Year’s Eve for college basketball in the Triangle–one which saw UNC, NC State and Duke each suffer losses–another major shockwave came out of Durham on Monday.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced he will coach his team’s game against Georgia Tech on Wednesday, but then undergo back surgery on Friday, Jan. 6 to remove a fragment of a herniated disk.
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman was the first to report the news, with one of the reporter’s sources stating that Krzyzewski’s back has been bothering him much worse than he’s been letting on.
The Blue Devils (12-2, 0-1 ACC) entered the year as the consensus top team in America and were ranked No. 5 in last week’s AP Top 25 before losing at Virginia Tech.
Now they could be without their Hall-of-Fame coach for at least four weeks, as that is the estimated recovery time for the procedure Coach K will be receiving.
Should he return at that time, his first game back could potentially be the Feb. 9 rivalry matchup with UNC at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
While Krzyzewski is recovering, assistant coach Jeff Capel will handle Duke’s head coaching duties.
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