DURHAM – There is a chance Maliq Brown could return for Duke in its game at North Carolina on Saturday night.

Coach Jon Scheyer said Brown would “try to” practice Thursday, while making it clear his defensive savant of a backup center has not practiced in the past two weeks because of his separated left shoulder.

“Maliq’s been telling me for two weeks, ‘I’m ready,’ even when he hasn’t been,” Scheyer said. “He has not practiced yet. He’s going to try to do some today but we’re not going to risk anything unless he’s completely ready to go.”

Brown has missed Duke’s last four games heading into Saturday’s trip to Chapel Hill, which is the same scenario — different injury — as he had going into these teams’ first meeting. Brown suffered a separated shoulder late in the first half of Duke’s 18-point win at Virginia on Feb. 17.

The 6-9, 222-pounder suffered a sprained knee in mid-January and was out until Duke’s 87-70 win over UNC on Feb. 1. He returned and had a beyond-the-stat-sheet impact on the Blue Devils’ win, including a steal on his first possession, making things uncomfortable for what was an overmatched UNC frontcourt.

It’s no slight against Brown but the Blue Devils have kept rolling without him in the lineup. Duke’s last four wins have come by 43, 37, 35 and 33 points — the first of those was against an Illinois team bound for the NCAA tournament, the last of them was Monday night’s throttling of a Wake Forest team that’s 20-10.

Freshman center Khaman Maluach had two points and four rebounds in the game Brown was injured in. Since then, he’s had double-figure scoring games against Illinois (13 points) and Florida State (14), and he had 14 rebounds against Wake Forest. He didn’t have a block in that game at Virginia; he’s had six blocks in Duke’s last four games.

The Blue Devils have also gotten valuable minutes from Patrick Ngongba II since Brown’s second injury. He had a career-high nine points at Miami, had five points, six rebounds and three assists against Illinois, and had six rebounds against Wake Forest. Two of his six blocks this season have come in the last four games.

Ngongba’s development has meant Mason Gillis hasn’t had to play the 5-spot, as was the case when Brown missed time in January.

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