Duke Center Marques Bolden Will Miss ACC Tournament With MCL Injury
Duke center Marques Bolden will miss the 2019 ACC tournament with an MCL injury.
"There's no way [Bolden] will be ready for the ACC tournament," head coach Mike Krzyzewski told GoDuke.com. "Whatever grade [the sprain] is, he's not going to be well in one week."
Bolden injured his knee just three minutes into the Blue Devils' regular season finale clash against rival North Carolina. The junior went down when trying to block Garrison Brooks' dunk and immediately grabbed his knee in pain. Trainers came onto the court to check out Bolden's knee, and two teammates later helped him off to the floor and into the locker room.
After the game, head coach Mike Krzyzewski said that Bolden had a sprained MCL in his left knee but didn't know the grade of the sprain yet.
Bolden is the latest Duke player to sustain a knee sprain after star freshman Zion Williamson went down in the Blue Devils' loss to UNC on Feb. 20. Williamson suffered a Grade 1 right knee sprain when he slipped and ripped through his shoe. Duke listed Williamson as day-to-day, but he ended up missing the remainder of the regular season.
Bolden finished the regular season averaging 6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, while leading Duke with 55 blocked shots.
Williamson is expected to return for the ACC Tournament and he was named the ACC Player of the Year on Monday.
Duke enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will play in a quarterfinals matchup on Thursday, March 14 at 9 p.m. ET. The Blue Devils will play the winner of the Wednesday 9 p.m. ET matchup.
