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March Madness: Vermont’s TJ Long suffers brutal knee injury late in loss to Duke

TJ Long
Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

After an exciting 28-win season, the Vermont Catamounts reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament as the 13th seed. This drew a tough matchup with the four-seed Duke Blue Devils. But for TJ Long, it was a chance to play in his home state of New York at the Barclays Center.

Despite being Vermont’s leading scorer, the sophomore guard had a tough time adjusting to Duke’s defense in the 64-47 loss, but that was just the start of the nightmare.

With just over 90 seconds remaining, Long, No. 20, suffered a sudden knee injury and collapsed to the court, where he stayed for several moments writhing in pain

There’s no word on the severity of Long’s setback, but so far, Vermont coach John Becker says the ‘hope is’ he avoided a ‘catastrophic’ knee injury. However, they’ll need to wait for imaging to know more. Long left the locker room on crutches.

He finished with three points after shooting 1-for-8 from the field, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal.

Related: How many perfect brackets left leading into March Madness?

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