How Caleb Foster willed himself back to the court and Duke to the Elite 8 just 3 weeks after breaking his foot
How Caleb Foster willed himself back to the court and Duke to the Elite 8 just 3 weeks after breaking his foot
Ross DellengerSat, March 28, 2026 at 3:12 AM UTC
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WASHINGTON, DC — If you listened closely, you could hear the squeak.
Eeeek.
Eeeek.
Just barely audible, the noise came filtering down the hallway and then into the postgame interview room.
Emerging through the doorway was Caleb Foster, the heart and soul of the NCAA tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, the Duke Blue Devils, his right leg propped onto a two-wheel scooter, his ankle and foot — shoe and sock-less — covered in bubble wrap. He parked his transportation device at the foot of the erected podium, limped up its stairs and slumped, clearly exhausted, into an awaiting chair.
Minutes earlier, the junior leader of this team returned from a more than two-week-long injury in the most exhilarating way and in the most incredible setting: He scored 11 points, sinking three consecutive shots in a timely stretch that spurred Duke to overcome a 10-point second-half deficit and win a Sweet 16 game against St. John’s, 80-75.
He left his coach nearly speechless, his teammates downright dumfounded — how?! — and himself smiling.
“He had no business playing tonight,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, gesturing toward Foster’s way during the news conference. “There's no stats to measure how big this dude's heart is.”
The Blue Devils, now an incredible 35-2, topped Rick Pitino and St. John’s for a variety of reasons. You can chalk this one up to plenty of people. Cameron Boozer put up yet another double-double (22 and 10), Isaiah Evans sank four 3-pointers and Scheyer’s decision to shift into a zone defense — with 14 minutes left and his team down 10 points — managed to swallow the Johnnies.
All of that can wait.
The spotlight shined on Mister Scooter.
Eeeek.
Eeeek.
Foster, a North Carolina kid who grew up watching the championship-winning Coach K Era, managed in just 20 days to return from fracturing his foot in the regular season finale against North Carolina. It’s quite a feat, enough to have Scheyer all emotional in the minutes afterward.
“I was hoping we could get eight minutes from him tonight,” the coach said. “He completely surpassed my expectations. You guys saw it. We needed every last shot, basket, poise. He’s our most experienced in these moments.”
Foster played limited minutes in the first half and returned to the bench out of the break well after the second half had begun, a result of the injury.
And then, moments later, he went on his run.
Duke guard Caleb Foster dribbles past St. John's guard Dylan Darling during the Blue Devils' Sweet 16 win on Friday night. (Amber Searls-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / REUTERS)
After St. John’s used a feisty 13-0 spurt to take a double-digit lead, Foster put back a missed layup, popped a driving layup off the board and sank a jumper from the paint.
Boom!
Bang!
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Bam!
No squeaking here.
“When he scored four times in a row, I was like, ‘Hell yeah,’” Boozer said. “That was the moment.”
“I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s back!” said Evans.
From a leadership standpoint, he was big down the stretch, when Pitino’s Red Storm kept creeping to within three points (St. John’s made double its average number of 3-pointers with 13 of them).
With two minutes left, there was Foster again — swoosh! — with a jumper for a six-point lead.
How can a kid play like this moments before hobbling across that interview stage? How can he do this less than three weeks after fracturing his foot?
There’s a determination here, something deeper within. Perhaps it was the fact that he missed the entire NCAA tournament two years ago? Or that Duke choked away a victory in the Final Four last year?
After Foster’s injury against North Carolina, doctors told him that he could return in about two weeks. Well, that’s at least how he remembers it.
“Nobody said two weeks,” Scheyer said with a laugh, interrupting Foster.
“Hey, I heard two weeks,” Foster replied back with a laugh.
Either way, here he was, racing down the court, snagging rebounds (three), dishing assists (two) and, most importantly, burying jumpers and sinking layups during the most important stretch of the game.
“I’ve been driving fast on the scooter for a few weeks,” Foster said with a laugh. “Lot of recovery, early mornings and late nights. I wanted to provide a boost out there.”
After his portion of the interview ended, Foster slowly rose, limped across that stage, down the steps, hopped back on his scooter — eeeek! — and literally rolled out of the room.
Scheyer took it as an opportunity.
Let’s talk about that kid.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” he said. “It’s harder to go through stuff now for all the reasons you guys know. Transfer portal. Every step of the way … [since] he committed to us when he was 16 … Two tournaments injured. The pain you feel for that. Moments he could have transferred. His commitment to me and this program…
“This decision [to play] had to come from him and I wanted to support him. I really felt like he was going to will us to victory.”
He did just that. Along with the Boozer twins, sharp-shooting Evans and a 38-year-old coach who replaced a legend, the Duke Blue Devils are back in the Elite Eight, rolling into Sunday’s East region final.
And we do mean rolling.
Eeeeek.
Source: “AOL Sports”
