Zion Williamson Out for Duke vs. Virginia Tech with Knee Injury Suffered vs. UNC

Duke superstar forward Zion Williamson will not play in Tuesday night's matchup against Virginia Tech, according to Stephen Wiseman of The Herald-Sun.

Williamson is recovering from a knee sprain he suffered during Duke's 88-72 loss to rival North Carolina last Wednesday. It will be the second straight game he's missed with the injury. Duke beat Syracuse 75-65 without him Saturday, behind RJ Barrett's 30 points and seven assists.

The Blue Devils fell to No. 3 in the latest Associated Press poll released Monday after the loss to the Tar Heels.

Duke is still loaded without Williamson, boasting talents like Barrett, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones. But few players in recent memory have been as dynamic and exciting as Williamson, who seems a safe bet to be the top overall player selected in this year's NBA draft.

Williamson is averaging 21.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting a ridiculous 68.3 percent from three. While he isn't without his question marks—namely his perimeter shooting—his above-the-rim athleticism more than covers for his deficiencies, at least at the college level.

There has been public debate about whether Williamson should even play again this season or sit out the remainder of the year as a precaution from further injury and potentially hurting his draft stock. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski told reporters he hasn't discussed such a scenario with Williamson and that Duke will take every precaution in his recovery, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com:

"We would never play a kid who's not ready. We would never play a youngster who didn't want to play. It's not about that. He wants to play. He loves being at Duke. He doesn't like being injured. It's an injury you can get over in a shorter period of time. There's just a protocol that we have to go through to make sure he's completely ready. We're not rushing anything, so that's why we said day-to-day because it's literally day-to-day." 

There's little need to rush Williamson back this time of the season anyway—Duke's endgame is an NCAA championship. Having Williamson healthy come March is more important than having him available for the end of the ACC schedule.