Following his team’s 35 point victory over Grand Canyon, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski provided an update on his three elite freshmen and their availability going forward.

The Blue Devils ran past both Marist and Grand Canyon with relative ease on Friday and Saturday evenings. Duke beat Marist by 45 and then followed it up with a 36 point route of the Antelopes on Saturday.

Friday’s game saw Duke able to play nine scholarship rotational players and not be challenged. However, Grand Canyon’s dribble drive attack forced Coach Krzyzewski to make some adjustments and tighten the rotation down to a primary group of six. And so Duke has shown the elite depth often attributed to the team isn’t there. Yet.

In order for the Blue Devils to become the team everyone expected throughout the offseason, a trio of freshman stars will need to get healthy. Harry Giles (knee) isn’t expected back until very late this month, if not early December. Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum (ankle), and Marques Bolden (leg) are also on the shelf without a stated time of return.

“I can't give you a time,” said Krzyzewski after the game against Grand Canyon. “I don’t anticipate [Marques Bolden, Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum] to play on Tuesday. They may not play the whole week. So we have to prepare the way we have our team right now with nine guys.”

The Duke head coach continued and outlined how his team is approaching the loss of the three potential lottery picks.

“I can’t talk about those guys but everyone wants to know about those guys,” he said. “That is a 10-second conversation and you might think that I’m avoiding the question but there’s nothing else to talk about. I would think our opponents would like for them not to play and we’re not as good without them. But we can be really good. Once we decide that this might take time and not try to bring them back, ask ‘How are you today?’ and then they might tweak something, or take a step back, let’s just get well. And while you guys are getting well and supporting the team, let’s become a team with these nine guys. We made that the priority this week. So we are trying to figure out the system we need for this group of guys.”

Duke plays No. 3 Kansas on Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden as part of the State Farm Champions Classic.