Duke headlines the NCAA Tournament’s East Region as a No. 1 seed and will open the push for the program’s sixth national title with a short drive from campus.
The Blue Devils (31-3) begin play Friday in Raleigh, a familiar location as home to Atlantic Coast Conference neighbor N.C. State and roughly a 30-minute drive east of Duke’s campus in Durham. They’ll face the winner of a First Four matchup between American and Mount St. Mary’s.
Alabama is the 2-seed in the bracket as it chases a second straight Final Four appearance, followed by Wisconsin, Arizona and Oregon. The other teams are: BYU, Saint Mary’s, Mississippi State, Baylor, Vanderbilt, VCU, Liberty, Akron, Montana and Robert Morris.
Duke enters the tournament having swept the Atlantic Coast Conference outright regular-season and tournament titles for the first time since 2006. But the latter came with freshman star Cooper Flagg (ankle) and valuable defender Maliq Brown (shoulder) going down with injuries in the quarterfinal, forcing the Blue Devils to play shorthanded on the way to their ACC-record 23rd title by beating No. 13 Louisville in Saturday night’s final.
Coach Jon Scheyer said afterward that Flagg — named last week as the ACC player and newcomer of the year by The Associated Press — is trending toward being available “right away” in the NCAAs with the sprained left ankle. Brown’s prognosis is more uncertain; it’s a reinjury after he recently returned from missing roughly three weeks with a dislocated left shoulder.
The Blue Devils are a No. 1 seed for the 15th time and will chase the program’s 18th trip to the Final Four.
The regionals will be held in Newark, New Jersey, not far from where Duke has frequently played nonconference games at New York’s Madison Square Garden — including for a 43-point win against NCAA-bound Illinois on Feb. 22. The Sweet 16 games will take place March 27, with the regional final coming two days later.
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