Sometimes in college basketball, the plan changes, and sometimes the plan changes you. When Patrick Ngongba II officially became a Blue Devil, there was no denying the Blue Devils got a very skilled and talented player, but the questions around his health and whether he’d be a factor this season remained. The 6’11 center missed the entirety of his senior season at Paul VI Catholic High School in Virginia as he underwent surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot in November 2023. Ngongba would return for some spring work after the season, still managing to be productive despite his time away from the game.
Ngongba arrived at Duke relatively healthy, but clearly not 100%. The goal for the Blue Devils from day 1 was complete health for Pat. Jon Scheyer alluded to it during Duke’s media day: “Pat Ngongba is out for the time being, he’s had foot injuries in his high school career,” coach Jon Scheyer said during the preseason. “It’s not about anything that he’s done, it’s just about getting him to his full, 100% productivity on the court where he can move completely pain free and being the level of player that we know he can be.”
The Blue Devils have been afforded a lineup that has allowed them to work the process and take their time in his health as well as his development. With a lottery pick as a starter (Khaman Maluach) and the best defensive player in the ACC as his backup (Maliq Brown), there has been no need to rush. Ngongba totaled 23 minutes in the month of November, 26 in December and January was heading in a similar direction with Patrick only tallying 8 minutes in the first 3 games of the month. Even with the very limited minutes afforded Pat, there were flashes of what Ngongba can do and what Jon Scheyer saw in him as Duke recruited him. Ngongba has showed in his few minutes amazing touch around the rim and an ability to be not just a willing passer but a phenomenal one.
Things changed on a dime with the announcement from Jon Scheyer that junior Maliq Brown, arguably Duke and the ACC’s best defender, would miss multiple games and possibly weeks after injuring his knee against Notre Dame. The timeline had to change. After saying earlier in the season that we’d likely not see a lot of Ngongba this season or at least not the most complete version of the freshman center, the 3rd year head coach of the Blue Devils had to adjust his thinking and the timeline. “I can’t imagine missing my senior year of high school and then having to come in and make an immediate impact, you need reps, and you need time, and so we are trying to speed that process up as much as possible,” Scheyer said. Ngongba has gone from about 35 minutes a month to averaging 16.5 minutes in Duke’s last 2 games. While nothing statistically has jumped off the page for the young freshman, there have been glimpses of what Scheyer saw in Ngongba as a high school junior.
While Big Pat as he’s been affectionately nicknamed has yet to have his breakout game for the Blue Devils, with more teams going at the Blue Devil interior due to a perceived lack of depth with Maliq Brown being out, Jon Scheyer echoed his belief in Patrick Ngongba: “There’s always been such a belief in him and his thing has been about the speed which he does stuff all the time, the consistency of how he’s doing it. His feel has always jumped off the page for me, he’s got great feel, he’s got great hands, great touch and skill, he’s just building up the rest.”
Obviously, losing a world-class defender like Maliq Brown isn’t ideal and definitely alters things for the Blue Devils, but the silver lining may be for an already tough Blue Devil team is that this could eventually push them over the top. Since necessity is the mother of invention, the absence of Maliq Brown has also forced Coach Scheyer to try out some unconventional lineups, some featuring grad transfer Mason Gillis, who stands just 6’6 at the 5. This lineup allows Duke to space the floor with 5 shooters at times. Not a lineup that I would venture is used often, but it’s never wrong to expand the tools in your toolbox. But moreover, the luxury of having 3 solid rotational bigs, each with a distinct skill set different from the other, is rare for any team, much less this Duke team which planned on using their 6’11 freshman sparingly. If Duke does make a deep run in this year’s NCAA Tournament, it would be hard not to look back at this January transition as one of the tent poles for that run.
