Duke ‘hopeful’ to have Mark Mitchell, Jeremy Roach back Tuesday

Duke’s pair of injured starters will have to practice before playing, and coach Jon Scheyer is “hopeful” they’ll be able to practice Monday before the Blue Devils head to Louisville.

Mark Mitchell has missed Duke’s last two games, and Jeremy Roach has missed one. They were both sorely needed in Duke’s 80-76 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

“We’re hopeful they can try to practice today, which would be the first practice that they have,” Scheyer said Monday morning on the ACC’s teleconference. “We’ll see—we look at Tuesday night as more of a game-time decision.”

Roach is Duke’s second-leading scorer at 14.6 points per game; Mitchell is tied with Jared McCain as Duke’s No. 3 scorer, both at 12.2.

In assessing Duke’s best defensive lineups, Roach and Mitchell have been the most-important players on that end, per EvanMiya.

“You have to be able to play five-on-five, you have to be able to practice,” Scheyer added. “They haven’t been able to do that yet. They’ve taken good steps. … I thought in the days leading up (to Saturday), they took some good steps but couldn’t quite get over the hurdle.”

Scheyer said both had good individual work on Sunday and that Monday would be a “big test” as far as whether he’d have one or both starters back.