According to fans, Duke Blue Devils guard Nik Khamenia has not been proving his worth to his team. On Tuesday, Dec. 2, Khamenia and the rest of coach Jon Scheyer’s 2025-26 Blue Devils faced coach Todd Golden’s Florida Gators, the 2025 national champions, on their home floor, the Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
During the game, many onlookers gave Khamenia a tough time with criticism towards his performance as a facilitator in the Duke squad. However, a recent post by @DukeInDepth on X/Twitter suggests that Khamenia may actually be playing with an injury, causing him to play subpar. The post indicates that the freshman rolled his ankle and was being treated on the bench afterwards.
Khamenia rolls his ankle, stays down for a bit as play is stopped, and now is getting attention on the end of the bench
— Duke Basketball In Depth (@DukeInDepth) December 3, 2025
College basketball fans online are unhappy with how Khamenia has been playing, deeming it underwhelming, despite his alleged injury.
“Nik Khamenia is more Greg Paulus than Kon Knueppel and that’s a problem for this iteration of Duke. We need a stead and smart ball handler, secondary shooter and underrated defender. Instead he’s always too hurried, out of control and reckless,” one fan claimed.
“@All_Cam23 Khamenia is so useless, that’s what the Duke staff has him as a starter now. Deactivate your twitter please,” another fan shared.
“Khamenia has no business starting or in the rotation,” another user said.
“Nik Khamenia has been a little bit of a disappointment this year,” a fan wrote.
Other X users called Khamenia out for a lapse he had in a play with swingman Cameron Boozer during the Blue Devils’ most recent game.
“Turnover, turnover, turnover, turnover. Khamenia had Boozer in the post and elected to throw it to…Jordan Smith I guess,” one user pointed out.
“Nik Khamenia just passed up getting the ball into Cam Boozer in the paint and instead chucked it 5 rows deep into the Crazies,” another user posted.
“Khamenia had Boozer wide open in the post after patiently waiting for the switch and then…Just lost his mind. What was that?,” a fan questioned.
Khamenia is currently in his first year of college basketball with the Blue Devils in the 2025-26 collegiate hoops season. So far through nine games, he has helped Duke to an undefeated overall record of 9-0 to place them as the No. 1 seed in the ACC standings. The Blue Devils are pursuing a return to the college basketball mountaintop after they were eliminated in the NCAA Final Four of the 2025 national tournament
The Duke Blue Devils Defeat The Defending NCAA Champions By A Point
In what went down as a back-and-forth affair with the defending national champions at home, Nik Khamenia and the rest of the Duke Blue Devils pulled through and beat the Florida Gators by a mere point, 67-66.
The Blue Devils will aim to continue their win streak against the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday, Dec. 6.
Read More: Nikolas Khamenia Calls Nate Ament the ‘Superstar’ Piece Duke Needs to Complete Its 2025 Class
Also Read: Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer’s Five Most Impactful Signings This Offseason
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