WASHINGTON — Exactly 20 days ago, when Caleb Foster was sobbing his eyes out on a golf cart in Cameron Indoor Stadium, painfully aware he’d just broken his right foot, he never could have imagined this.
And yet, here he is.
Or, more accurately, here Duke is: Still dancing, and advancing to its third consecutive Elite Eight after Friday’s Sweet 16 comeback against St. John’s. And while, yes, the thriller inside Capital One Arena will be remembered for No. 1 Duke surviving No. 5 St. John’s 80-75 — let’s be honest.
Friday will endure as The Caleb Foster Game, now and forevermore.
For good reason, too. Because there is no rationale or logical explanation for what transpired in the nation’s capital Friday: Duke’s point guard somehow, some way, playing 18 unflinching minutes not even three weeks after foot surgery, scoring 11 pivotal second-half points to effectively save the Blue Devils’ season.
“He had no business playing tonight. Ninety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what’s happened to him,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. “It was incredible the way he willed us. There’s no analytics, there’s no stats that can measure how big this dude’s heart is.”
Or, as head athletic trainer Jose Fonseca put it: “Miracles happen in March, and I think we just witnessed the first one for us.”
The only problem with that sentiment is it ignores the grueling rehab and recovery Foster endured, all with the insatiable desire to return for Duke’s pursuit of the program’s sixth national championship.
That began not even an hour after Foster first suffered the injury, awkwardly pushing off his foot and crumpling immediately to the ground. It admittedly took the junior — who missed the NCAA Tournament as a freshman because of an ankle injury — time to compose himself. But eventually, he emerged back on the bench for Duke’s win over rival North Carolina, telling teammates and Fonseca the same thing that became his north star:
“He said, ‘I’m gonna be back,’” Fonseca remembered. “Who am I to tell him no?”
The next morning, Foster had surgery in Duke’s on-campus hospital, but when teammates and coaches came to visit him, his message hadn’t changed. Doctors told Foster then that there was a chance he could return for a postseason push, but likely not until the Final Four, if the Blue Devils were fortunate enough to make it that far.
“He said two weeks …” Foster began saying atop the postgame dais, before Scheyer cut him off:
“Nobody said two weeks,” Scheyer shot back with a smile. “You heard two weeks.”
Guilty as charged.
“That’s where my mindset was at,” Foster added.
And over the past 19 days, Foster’s flame was inextinguishable, in a manner that more than compares to some of the most memorable Duke injury recoveries of this generation.
“His work ethic is just as good as, say, a guy like Kyrie (Irving) or Zion (Williamson), right? But the timing is different,” Fonseca said. “Honestly, (if) this happens in the fall, the summertime, we’re telling Coach, six, probably eight weeks.”
Instead, Foster made rehab his full-time job. Early mornings. Late nights. Everything Fonseca and the rest of Duke’s training staff told him to do, all while answering the forever follow-ups: How do you feel after yesterday? Are you sore? Can you do more? It was a step-by-step incremental process, one done in conjunction with Duke’s trainers and coaches, Foster’s agent and family.
But it all came down to Foster, who grew up a Duke fan in Harrisburg, N.C., and who — in his own words — “wanted to come out and provide anything possible.”
Safe to say he did more than that.
Beyond his physical recovery, Foster also had to keep his skills sharp. And much of the credit for helping him do so belongs to Duke’s player development specialist, Jayce McCain, whose younger brother is former Duke star and current Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jared McCain. Over the past three weeks, McCain and Foster were all but attached at the hip, doing anything possible to keep Foster as game-ready as possible.
Which, yes, meant trying to practice while Foster was still using a knee rover scooter.
Form shots, 20 to 30 of them, from everywhere on the court you can imagine.
Ballhandling drills, even with Foster’s foot in a boot.
“My brother is known as one of the best workers, and Caleb is right in that tier,” McCain said. “As corny as it sounds, I believe in Caleb Foster more than anyone. … If anyone could do it, it’s Caleb.”
But it wasn’t until last weekend, when Duke beat No. 16 Siena and No. 9 TCU in Greenville, S.C., that the possibility of Foster’s return became real. Fonseca got a call from Foster’s agent relaying something Foster texted his family: I’m ready to go.
By Wednesday of this week, before Duke left Durham, Fonseca put that sentiment to the test. He had Foster go through a workout to test his readiness — thinking especially about Sweet 16 opponent St. John’s physical, top-10 defense.
The next morning, Foster’s soreness was minimal. The final checkpoint, cleared.
“And then, boom,” Fonseca said, smiling. “Here we are today.”
Foster’s return once seemed a luxury for the top overall seed in this NCAA Tournament, with five-star freshman point guard Cayden Boozer waiting in the wings. It turned out to be a necessity.
And though Foster had a limited impact in the first half, with just one rebound and one assist in seven minutes, it was clear that he didn’t look all that rusty.
Especially to his mother, Yvonne, wearing a Duke blue shawl directly behind the Blue Devils bench.
“He was locked in, like always,” Yvonne said. “Today was just a really good indication of how tough he really is, and how much he loves the game.”
And, as Foster proved in the second half, how essential he is to Duke’s postseason survival.
Early in the second half, St. John’s went on a 13-0 run that had Duke fully on the ropes, down 10 and desperate for any sort of offensive spark. So Scheyer called a high-ball screen with Foster, who got downhill with relative ease, and scored at the rim.
The next possession down, Scheyer doubled down on the call — and Foster, once again, bullied his way to a basket.
“When he got those back-to-back buckets,” said sophomore Isaiah Evans, who scored a game-high 25 points, “I was like, yeah, he’s back.”
Guess what Duke went to on the next possession. And guess how it ended, only this time with an and-one.
“We literally just went high pick-and-roll, spammed it — and he got downhill and then figured out a way,” McCain said. “It’s amazing how sharp he was with his scoring in the paint. Bumping people, stepping through his pivots. … He hasn’t played real basketball in the last two, three weeks.”
Foster’s scoring punch and emotional lift, a borderline out-of-body experience, picked Duke up off the mat and made it a one-possession game. And from then on, it was a game again.
By the final minutes, Scheyer couldn’t keep Foster — who finished with three rebounds, two assists and no turnovers — off the floor. And one more time, the junior guard rewarded the coach who stuck with him, sinking a teardrop jumper with 2:14 to play that put the Blue Devils up six, and helped stave off the Red Storm’s final push.
When the final buzzer sounded, and CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson made her way to Scheyer, the Blue Devils coach couldn’t even articulate how special Foster’s performance was to him. After a lengthy pause, holding back tears, Scheyer said what many who watched Friday night already knew to be true: “That’s one of the most special performances I’ve ever seen.”
As soon as the game ended, Foster was back on his knee scooter, with a fat bag of ice cling-wrapped around his foot.
There will, surely, be soreness. More treatment, more rest. More assessments to make sure Foster can continue to play, as early as Sunday, when the Blue Devils face No. 2 UConn with a return trip to the Final Four at stake.
But as Friday proved, Foster’s presence is worth all the hassle and more.
“What he did, it was a surreal thing,” Scheyer said. “I really felt like he was going to will us to victory — and that’s what he did.”
