DURHAM, N.C. -- After Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski labeled Marques Bolden's lower leg injury "too difficult to explain," he hinted that the Blue Devils would be without their highly touted freshman trio of Bolden, Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum until they were fully healthy.
Krzyzewski sounded a bit exasperated, noting that Bolden's injury, which the team announced Monday, was somewhat of a fluke.
"There wasn't an event [that caused it]," Krzyzewski said. "Sometimes you wake up, and it's something you didn't notice."
That threesome, along with junior Sean Obi, sat out Duke's 94-49 win over Marist. The No. 1-ranked Blue Devils face Grand Canyon on Saturday before heading to New York to play No. 3 Kansas.
Krzyzewski said he is not in a rush to have his players back by then either.
"We can't go through the whole year with lingering injuries," Krzyzewski said. "We're not the team we thought we would be at this time, but we're a good team. To be the team that we hope to be, we've got to be healthy. We're going to really be adamant about taking a longer time than a shorter time, no matter what."
Giles, who underwent a left knee arthroscopy in October after rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last November, will probably be out the longest.
Krzyzewski said Bolden is "getting better," but said the team is being cautious with Tatum, who sprained his foot during practice in late October.
"We've got to be careful not to get these guys coming back too soon," he said. "Jayson was doing great. I think we put him in practice a little too soon, and I think that hurt him. We're just going to shut those guys down for a while."