Injury will sideline Duke guard Jones

No. 1 Duke has to figure out how to replace arguably its most irreplaceable player — point guard Tre Jones.

The strength of this Blue Devils team has been how neatly its four star freshmen fit into clearly defined roles. Zion Williamson makes headlines with his once-ina-generation athleticism while RJ Barrett delivers consistent scoring and Cameron Reddish focuses on long-range shooting.

Jones is the least talked about of the foursome, but the things he provides — running the offense with unflappable efficiency, and pressuring the opposing team’s point guard on defense — are tough to quantify and replace.

Jones is out indefinitely after injuring his right shoulder early in the Blue Devils’ 95-91 loss to Syracuse on Monday night that will surely drop them from the top spot in the polls.

“There are bumps in the road along the way for a lot of people,” Krzyzewski said Monday night. “... We’ll figure out ways of handling it.”

Duke spokesman Mike DeGeorge said Jones separated his right AC joint during a collision with the Orange’s Frank Howard with 14:23 left in the first half.

Orange fan will pay: Adam Weitsman, a central New York businessman, said he’s following through with a pledge to donate $150,000 to area Boys & Girls Clubs in the aftermath of Syracuse’s upset of topranked Duke.

Weitsman, a well-known Orange fan and owner of recycling and shredding business, posted on Facebook before the game that he would make the donation if Syracuse won.

Weitsman told the PostStandard of Syracuse that on the way to the game in Durham, N.C., he read about a Syracuse recruit who learned to play the game at the Boys & Girls Club in Rochester, N.Y.

That’s when the idea of the donation came to him. Weitsman’s grandfather was a founding member of a Boys & Girls Club in New York. Also, the foundation of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and wife Juli supports branches of the organization.