Duke had just followed its Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title by adding another league tournament title to its record haul, with players standing on a stage adorned with the trophy and confetti.
Yet it wasn’t too early for freshman Kon Knueppel to start talking about March Madness.
“We’ve got two down and one to go,” the tournament MVP told a roaring set of celebrating fans.
Now the Blue Devils can turn their attention to chasing their sixth national title as the top seed in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region, with their first stop coming within their own 919 area code.
The Blue Devils (31-3) begin play Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, 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 will face the winner of a First Four matchup between American and Mount St. Mary’s in a bracket that includes Alabama, Wisconsin and Oregon.
Duke swept the ACC titles for the first time since 2006. The tourney title came with freshman star Cooper Flagg (ankle) and versatile defender Maliq Brown (shoulder) going down with injurie , forcing the Blue Devils to play shorthanded on the way to their ACC-record 23rd title.
The focus locked particularly on Flagg — named last week as the ACC player and newcomer of the year by The Associated Press — as a potential No. 1 overall NBA draft pick whenever he goes pro and likely the biggest name in this year’s field. He joined Brown in watching Duke’s last two games from the bench and standing on the outside edge of huddles during timeouts.
But he’s been walking without a major limp or protective boot, and he was healthy enough to scale a ladder a snip a piece of the net after the tourney win over Louisville.
“I think it’s trending in a great way where Cooper will be ready to go right away in the NCAA Tournament,” coach Jon Scheyer said.
Brown’s prognosis is more uncertain; it’s a reinjury after Brown recently returned from missing roughly three weeks with a dislocated left shoulder.
Final Four repeat?
Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide reached last year’s Final Four and opened this year as the favorite in a stacked Southeastern Conference that put a record 14 teams into the NCAA field. Alabama is the 2-seed in the East, coming off a 22-point loss to eventual NCAA No. 1 regional seed Florida in the SEC Tournament.
Alabama (25-8) faces uncertainty about the health of forward Grant Nelson, who suffered a knee injury against Florida. Oats told reporters Sunday night that the the 6-foot-11 Nelson would see a specialist Monday and that Nelson is experiencing swelling, but that “hopefully” he’s ready by the first round against 15th-seeded Robert Morris in Cleveland.
Top challengers
The next set of challengers include the third-seeded Badgers (26-9) and fourth-seeded Wildcats (22-12). Wisconsin lost to Michigan in the Big Ten title game shortly before the unveiling of the tournament field, while Arizona fell to eventual top region seed Houston in the Big 12 finale.
The Badgers open Thursday against 14th-seeded Montana in Denver, while the Wildcats face 13th-seeded Akron in Seattle on Friday.
Rounding out the bracket
Oregon is the 5-seed to cap its first season since moving to the Big Ten, and will face 12th-seeded Liberty in Seattle with a potential reunion of former Pac-12 programs looming with Arizona in Round 2.
Sixth-seeded BYU will meet 11th-seeded VCU in Denver on Thursday, while two other first-rounders — 7-seed Saint Mary’s against 10-seed Vanderbilt in Cleveland and 8-seed Mississippi State against 9-seed Baylor in Raleigh — come Friday.
Data sets
While sitting as the No. 2 overall seed behind Auburn for the tournament, Duke enters the NCAAs ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 and the NET. The Blue Devils are also No. 1 in analytics rankings by KenPom and Evan Miyakawa, as well as second behind Houston in Bart Torvik.
Duke is the only team to rank in the top five in both KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metrics for offense (128.0 points per 100 possession) and defense (89.8).
Alabama was top six overall for KenPom, Torvik and Miyakawa rankings, while Wisconsin and Arizona were in the top 15 for each. But Oregon’s No. 5 seed marks the first divergence, with the Ducks ranked outside the top 30 by all three sites yet holding a better tournament seed than BYU (18.0 average rank) and Saint Mary’s (21.7).
Road to San Antonio
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 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.
___
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
Copyright © 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
