Coach Mike Krzyzewski took time away from Duke’s practice to make an appearance on the first ACC basketball coaches Zoom call on Monday morning.

It was the first time since Dec. 23 that the Blue Devils had their full assortment of players and staff together – and even that was dependent on one more test result, Krzyzewski said.

“Yesterday we had just about everybody back, but it’s really been a very difficult time for our program,” Krzyzewski said Monday. “We’re looking forward to getting back to 100%, but that’s the lay of the land right now.”

Duke announced Dec. 27 that it was pausing all team activities because of COVID-19 protocols. The Blue Devils beat Virginia Tech on Dec. 22 and players went home for the Christmas break – when they came back, there were multiple positive tests within the program.

That meant isolation periods for several players and the postponement of two games last week – road trips to Clemson and Notre Dame.

“When you have it, you’re in isolation. So you’re in your room. You’re not allowed to do anything, so there’s no individual work. It’s not like these guys are getting ahead,” Krzyzewski said. “And it went through just about our whole team.”

Duke is slated to play host to Georgia Tech – a team that went through a COVID-necessitated pause of its own last month – on Tuesday night, and Krzyzewski said he expects the game to be played.

He said Duke expects to have all of its players available – but that getting back into game shape after an unscheduled 12-day break could prove challenging.

“We’re not in the shape that we have been in before, so it’s going to take time to ramp up,” Krzyzewski said. “We have to be careful on how you ramp up so that you don’t binge conditioning so that you get injuries would last far longer than ramping up.”