Kyrie Irving Will Play For Duke Friday Against Hampton, Coach K Confirms

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Duke managed to earn a top seed in the NCAA Tournament, despite losing phenom freshman Kyrie Irving to injury. On Thursday, though, a report has emerged claiming that Irving will “definitely” play Friday’s Duke-Hampton game. Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman tweets:

We don’t yet know whether Irving will actually start for the Blue Devils. Goodman’s next tweet indicates, unsurprisingly, that Irving isn’t 100 percent yet.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski said Tuesday at a press conference, “Kyrie practiced a little bit with us today. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. There is a chance he would play.” Irving return rumors have bubbled up and down throughout the year, but that’s from Coach K himself. It was Krzyzewski who first speculated that Irving could miss the entire year, for what it’s worth.

While “chance” isn’t by any means something to latch on to, it’s worth comparing with what he said earlier in the week. Monday Coach K was less optimistic, saying, “We’re far away from that decision.”

Coach K isn’t speaking in finites but he was very cautious to leave all possibilities open about the severity of the injury:

Keep an eye on Duke Basketball Report for updates.

Irving is the nation’s top freshman scorer and already a three-time ACC rookie of the week. He leads Duke in assists with 5.1 and is second in scoring and third in minutes played.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski: