By BRYAN STRICKLAND

bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671

DURHAM -- The Duke Blue Devils couldn't wait to tip off their season, but a quarter of their roster will have to wait a little longer.

Mason Plumlee, Jordan Davidson and Nolan Smith all will be out of action when the Blue Devils open their season tonight at Cameron Indoor Stadium against UNC Greensboro (7 p.m. FSN).

Plumlee, projected to start as a freshman, will be out indefinitely after suffering a fractured left wrist in practice Wednesday. Davidson, a fifth-year reserve guard, will miss the game to attend to the death of his grandmother earlier this week.

Smith, as earlier reported, will miss Duke's first two games after the school informed the NCAA that Smith took part in an unsanctioned summer league event.

While Davidson is likely to return for Monday's game against Coastal Carolina in the NIT Season-Tip Off and Smith will be back for Tuesday's second-round game, the time frame for Plumlee is trickier.

Plumlee won't have surgery and will be evaluated on a weekly basis. Depending on the healing process, he might be able to return for Duke's likely trip to New York for the conclusion of the NIT Season Tip-Off over Thanksgiving, or he might not be back in time for Duke's return trip to New York to face Gonzaga the week before Christmas.

"Mason took a hard fall in practice on Wednesday that resulted in the wrist injury," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement released by the school. "It was an unfortunate play but we are confident that he will make a full recovery.

"Mason is going to be a very good player for us and we look forward to him getting healthy and returning to the court."

The loss of the 6-10 Plumlee is the toughest to take in the long term -- especially if he's out more than a month rather than more than a week -- but in the short term, the loss of two guards presents an even greater challenge.

"Obviously you hope you go through the whole year with your whole team healthy, but if there's any situation where injuries occur or things like that, to be able to go to a different lineup is something we can learn to do early," senior guard Jon Scheyer said. "Obviously we're a better team with Nolan, there's no question about that. He gives us a lot, adds a lot, and he takes pressure off me.

"So for the first two games we need to be ready to handle the ball. I'm sure defenses will try to pressure us a little bit more, but that's something we've been preparing to do without him."

Without Smith and Davidson tonight, the perimeter rotation will consist of Scheyer, 6-8 Kyle Singler on the wing and freshman Andre Dawkins. Freshman Ryan Kelly can play on the wing, and first-year walk-on Casey Peters might even be called upon.

"It's no secret that we do have a limited amount of guards," Singler said. "We have to stay poised and make good passes."

The Devils didn't do a great job of that in their Nov. 3 exhibition against Findlay, when they played without Smith for the first half and turned the ball over 10 times.

In that game, Duke started Scheyer, Singler, Lance Thomas (6-8), Miles Plumlee (6-10) and Brian Zoubek (7-1).

That kind of size should overwhelm UNC Greensboro, a team that went 5-25 last season and doesn't have a player over 6-8, but it didn't overwhelm Division II Findlay.

"We can't bring ourselves down to being shorter than we are," Thomas said. "We can't be crouched over to make ourselves six feet tall; we need stand up and be six-foot-eight.

"We have to use our height and keep the ball above the smaller guys and not play down to their level size-wise."

Today is a big day for Duke both on and off the court. About three hours before tip-off, the Devils will find out if Harrison Barnes, the nation's top-rated player according to Scout.com, will play for Duke next season.

Barnes, a 6-6 wing player out of Ames (Iowa) High School, is expected to announce on ESPNU Signing Day around 4 p.m. whether he'll attend Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, UCLA or Iowa State.