{"id":700220,"date":"2026-04-05T21:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700220\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:02:20","slug":"cameron-boozer-reveals-injury-suffered-in-dukes-march-madness-loss-to-uconn-ahead-of-2026-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700220\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron Boozer Reveals Injury Suffered in Duke&#8217;s March Madness Loss to UConn Ahead of 2026 NBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Cameron Boozer came out of Duke&#8217;s loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight with an injury to his eye. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Speaking to <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JFedotin\/status\/2040841594643857413\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">reporters<\/a> on Sunday after being named the 2026 Naismith Men&#8217;s College Player of the Year winner, Boozer explained he is recovering from &#8220;a couple of fractures&#8221; on his left orbital bone. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Boozer added that he has opted to forego surgery. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The game between Duke and UConn was extremely physical on both sides. Boozer at one point was seen on the sidelines getting a cold soda can pressed against his orbital bone in an attempt to keep the swelling down. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">It&#8217;s unclear exactly when Boozer got struck in the face, but it didn&#8217;t seem to impact his performance. The freshman star played 39 out of 40 minutes, finishing with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Duke wound up losing 73-72 on Braylon Mullins&#8217; go-ahead three with 0.4 seconds remaining. The Blue Devils became the <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7156815\/2026\/03\/29\/cayden-boozer-pass-stolen-duke-uconn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">first No. 1 seed in tournament history<\/a> to lose a game after leading by at least 15 points at halftime. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">B\/R&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25262746-2026-nba-mock-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Jonathan Wasserman<\/a> is currently projecting Boozer, who has not yet officially announce he&#8217;s leaving school. to be the No. 3 pick in the 2026 NBA draft. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Boozer has won virtually every major individual honor given out so far for the 2025-26 season, including the Associated Press and Naismith awards. He is a finalist for the Wooden Award that will be given out on April 10. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">There&#8217;s no indication at this point how long Boozer&#8217;s recovery is going to take. The NBA draft lottery will take place on May 10, with the scouting combine running from May 10-17. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The NBA has not announced an official date for the 2026 draft, but the event historically takes place in late June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Boozer came out of Duke&#8217;s loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight with an injury to his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-700220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116354124559332161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}