NEWARK, N.J. – Maliq Brown has missed the allotted four games and so naturally, his return must be imminent.

No, obviously, nothing is that simple.

But there’s at least some precedent, if not coincidence, when it comes to Duke’s defensive wizard. He missed four games in January with a knee injury and returned against North Carolina; he missed four games at the end of the regular season with a shoulder injury and returned to play the Tar Heels again.

And he has missed Duke’s last four games after a re-dislocation of his left shoulder in the ACC tournament.

“It's day-to-day with Maliq, and there's a chance he could be available tomorrow night,” coach Jon Scheyer said on Wednesday.

Brown’s last return only lasted 1½ games. He returned and scored eight points in Duke’s win at UNC in the regular-season finale, and then his shoulder was injured in the final minutes of the first half against Georgia Tech in the quarterfinal game of the ACC tournament.

A return against Arizona on Thursday night would be most welcome for the Blue Devils — even though Khaman Maluach and Patrick Ngongba II have held things down at the center position. Brown played 24 minutes at Arizona earlier this season (Maluach played 16 and Ngongba didn’t play), and had two points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

So, this would be the first time this season Brown returns from a four-game absence to play a team other than UNC.

But one player on Arizona once wrote “TAR HEEL 4L” (for life) on his shoes for a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. So Brown returning against Arizona would be a sliver of returning against the Tar Heels.

Here are a few other notes going into Duke’s game against Arizona on Thursday night:

Speaking of that “TAR HEEL 4L” player …

Love was measured and mature in his approach to playing Duke for a 10th time — a number of games against the Blue Devils surpassed by only RJ Davis (12) and Armando Bacot (11).

The senior guard who has been at Arizona for two seasons after spending three at UNC even acknowledged that in his post-game TV interview after the Wildcats beat Arizona last weekend, he was sure to not provide any fuel to Duke’s fire.

“I didn't want to give them no fuel or bulletin board material,” Love said. “I just wanted to focus on what this group got to do and not give them anything that they can feed off of.”

Earlier in Wednesday’s press conference, Love was asked what he remembered about the late-game 3-pointer he made in the Final 4 three years ago.

“I made the shot,” Love said, matter of factly. “I mean, it really has no relevance to this game coming up. I just want to focus on the game plan that we have set. I want my focus to be with this group.”

Duke’s roster construction is the envy of most college basketball programs — and it’s a hot-button topic this week, given the transfer portal opened Monday.

While nobody is in the position of adding Cooper Flagg, it does make things interesting when Scheyer talks about how his team was assembled.

And, more importantly, how Duke handled things when players eventually made it to campus in June.

“I think the fact that since transfer portal has entered where you can leave at any time without any penalty, you have to deal with a new group almost every year,” Scheyer said. “And I think that's the biggest challenge where you feel like you can skip steps when you really can't. You have to start from ground zero every summer.

“And for us we went back to the basics this summer of just how to build this team from the ground up, build the connectivity, teach the standards, hold them accountable to what the standards are.”

Duke had two returning scholarship players last summer — Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster. That number will be different going into next season, but it’s still going be a team full of fresh faces.

Bringing Scheyer to end with this:

“And that's something I know we're going to have to do each year going forward.”

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