(02-03-2020 02:00 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  I'm not sure if it was reported in the Syracuse area but Duke faced some unusual problems in that game. Noland Smith, Duke's Director of Basketball Operations, didn't make the trip because his infant daughter was in intensive care back in Durham. Noland has an incredibly vibrant personality. He's someone whose absence would definitely be noticed. While Duke was doing a walk through at the Dome some hours before the game, Jon Scheyer, a Duke assistant coach, suddenly started having severe abdominal and back pain. He was taken to the ER in Syracuse and had to have an emergency appendectomy. Scheyer was the Duke assistant coach who had done the scouting report on Syracuse so his absence was also significant.

Noland's daugher is out of ICU (but there's been no announcement about why she was in the ICU) and Jon is back in Durham.