Without Caleb Foster, Duke will be a different team. Can it be better? Scheyer has a plan

Forced to fix a problem no coach wants to face this time of year, Jon Scheyer is forging ahead with a new plan for his Duke Blue Devils.

With the season about to transition from February to the magical month called March, Duke’s coach will not have freshman guard Caleb Foster available to play for the foreseeable future. Foster suffered a right foot injury during No. 10 Duke’s 83-79 loss at Wake Forest last Saturday and spent Wednesday night on the bench in street clothes — a boot on his right foot — as the Blue Devils dismantled last-place Louisville, 84-59 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

A team that utilized a three-guard starting lineup all season, with either Foster or sophomore point guard Tyrese Proctor coming off the bench to play major minutes, Duke (22-6, 13-4 ACC) built its solid record having more ball-handlers and shooters than its opponents.

Without Foster, who isn’t likely to play again before the ACC Tournament begins March 12 in Washington, D.C., Scheyer and his staff are quickly pivoting.

“We have to look at things differently,” Scheyer said. “That’s just the bottom line.”

Against Louisville, that meant using 6-9 freshman TJ Power more than usual and moving 6-9 sophomore Mark Mitchell back out on the perimeter to small forward rather than down low as a power forward.

Power played 14 minutes Wednesday night, more minutes in one game than in the last 10 games he’d played in combined.

Sean Stewart, a 6-9 freshman forward, played 11 minutes, only the second time in the last five games he’s played more than four minutes. He was Duke’s first reserve off the bench.

“We looked at some different lineups,” Scheyer said. “We went bigger. TJ and Sean getting them more minutes was a really good thing for us tonight.”

It’s a heckuva time to be making such a transition. Foster’s scoring average (7.7 points) doesn’t appear to make him a player so integral as to cause such upheaval by his absence.

But he is, because of his trusted ball-handling and his ability to keep the ball moving in Duke’s half-court sets.

“It’s not all the sudden where you plug someone in for Caleb,” Scheyer said. “Nobody does what Caleb does on our team.”

With Foster out of the rotation in the backcourt, Proctor, senior Jeremy Roach and freshman Jared McCain started in Duke’s usual three-guard starting five along with Mitchell and the 7-foot Kyle Filipowski as forwards.

Roach played 34 minutes, while McCain and Proctor each played 32. Expect them to keep logging those heavy minutes.

“Those starters that started tonight,” Scheyer said, “they’ve been in a lot of big-time games already. We need all of them to compete every game and to be really good. And that’s the bottom line.”

But when one of those guards needs a break, Scheyer is now more likely to sub in a player like Stewart or Power. Mitchell will get breaks; he played 29 minutes against Louisville. But he could find himself on the court along with Filipowski and 6-10 graduate student center Ryan Young at times. Or with Power and Stewart and two of the guards.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon how the situation is viewed, Duke has dealt with shifting rotations all season. Roach, Proctor and Mitchell have all missed at least one start due to injury.

It’s forced the Blue Devils to adapt on the fly. The only time they’ve lost with at least one starter not in uniform was when they were without Mitchell and Roach when Pitt beat them 80-76 back on Jan. 20.

“We played different lineups so much,” McCain said. “So now just getting used to the lineup and playing off each other, we already know how to play with each other. It’s nothing new for us.”

That ability to play through disruptions has been a strength for the Blue Devils this season. No team wants to face such a drastic change again with the postseason drawing near, but Duke is confident it can not only manage, but position itself for even more success in March.

“We have to find something during this period we haven’t found yet,” Scheyer said. “I think it’s an opportunity for individuals and it’s an opportunity for our team so when Caleb comes back, we’re even better, we’re stronger and we’re a different team.”