Duke lost a basketball game to an unranked team at home on Monday night. That much alone is worth quite a number of headlines. But the subtitle of those headlines should focus on what else the Blue Devils had taken from them in the 95-91 setback against Syracuse.

The loss of starting point guard Tre Jones severely affected Duke’s performance on both ends of the court. Jones’ status was initially described as a shoulder sprain by head coach Mike Krzyzewksi in the post game press conference. Later that was updated to an acromioclavicular (AC) joint separation.

For those of you preparing to head to Google for what such a diagnosis means, I’ll save you the trouble. According to several Internet outlets and medical dictionaries, such an injury is commonly referred to a shoulder separation and is defined as a dislocation of the clavicle from the acromion. The injury is most common in contact sports such as hockey or football.

There are a total of six grades of severity of AC separations. Grades I-III are the most common. Grades IV-VI are very uncommon and are usually the result of a very high-energy injury such as one that might occur in a motor vehicle accident. Grades IV-VI are all treated surgically because of the severe disruption of all the ligamentous support for the arm and shoulder.

The prognosis and recovery time for Jones is officially listed as “indefinite”, but Duke has not assigned or released the severity of their point guard’s injury. And so the Blue Devils are left to wonder just how long they’ll be without him.

Further research suggests that a mild, Grade I injury may have the patient back in as little as a week. A Grade III injury, however, can take as many as 12 weeks.

That is if it doesn’t require surgery. If it does? The prognosis can extend up to four to six months - which would end Jones' season.

And, to be frank, probably would end Duke's realistic chances of chasing the program's sixth national title.

While that bleak possibility lingers, the Blue Devils are left to pick up the pieces following the program's first loss to an unranked team at home while being ranked No. 1 in the country. Prior to the game against Syracuse, the Blue Devils had been 90-0 in such contests and looked well on their way to 91-0 after Jones spearheaded the Duke defensive attack and helped the Blue Devils jump out to a 12-0 lead.

Once Jones went out after just five minutes of action - a time in which he accumulated two points, two assists, and four steals - Duke's on the ball defense was dialed back from hellacious to tame. Syracuse, a team who struggled to score in its first 15 games, all of a sudden was comfortable on offense and seemed destine to score 100-plus.

Offensively, Duke went from a mostly efficient attack to a disjointed and somewhat clunky look without both its starting point guard and its best three point shooter as freshman Cam Reddish was sidelined with an illness. Without two of the team's top players, the Blue Devils were forced to rely more heavily on Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett. Barrett, who was forced into action as the team's default point guard, shot 4-of-17 from the perimeter including a stretch of 10 straight misses which fueled Syracuse's rally from an eight point deficit. Williamson, on the other hand, finished with 35 points and 10 rebounds, but was largely forgotten about for long stretches and was noticeably fatigued down the stretch.

"There's a burden that's placed on [Barrett] and Zion in that situation," explained Coach K, "because they know they have to carry more. The fact that they tried to do that, I like that. We weren't successful enough to win, but they stepped forward and put it on the line."

Other players attempted to step up as well. Alex O'Connell logged a career best 16 points while Marques Bolden added 12 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks. All good signs. And it still wasn't enough against a 17 point underdog. At home.

Going forward the Blue Devils will have a few days to recover and prepare for their next game - against Virginia. The Cavaliers had a strong case to be considered the best team in the league before Jones' injury. Now, with no timetable for his return, Duke will be a decided underdog against the Cavaliers. Should Virginia deliver a second conference loss to the Blue Devils over the weekend, it could effectively extinguish any realistic chances for the program's first regular season ACC title in more than a decade.

“We’ll figure that out later," said Krzyzewksi when asked how Duke would attempt to fill the void left by Jones' injury. "Let’s handle tonight and take time to figure out our best course of action."