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Blue Devils will play American or Mount St. Mary's in first round
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Tyrese Proctor celebrates after hitting one of his six 3-pointers against Louisville on Saturday night.
Jim Dedmon/USA Today Sports Images
Duke is headed to the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed for the 15th time in program history.
The Blue Devils are the No. 2 overall seed for the men’s NCAA tournament, as announced on CBS on Sunday night. Their first-round game will be against American or Mount St. Mary's on Friday in Raleigh, with a second-round game to follow on Sunday against either 8-seed Mississippi State or 9-seed Baylor.
The Blue Devils probably had a 1-seed locked up before this past week’s ACC tournament. Three games in Charlotte weren’t exactly a cakewalk for the league’s regular-season champs — made more difficult by injuries to Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown on Thursday — but the Blue Devils punched their ticket to the program’s 47th NCAA tournament by beating Louisville 73-62 on Saturday night in Charlotte.
To reiterate a point from late Saturday night: Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, "I think it's trending in a great way where Cooper will be ready to go right away in the NCAA Tournament."
Duke is tied for the second-most 1-seeds in NCAA tournament history. Kansas also has been a 1-seed 15 times; North Carolina has the record with 18 such berths.
Four of Duke’s five national championships — the last four — have come with Duke as a No. 1 seed. Duke’s first title, in 1991, was as a 2-seed.
Duke’s last No. 1 seed was in 2019 with Zion Williamson leading the way, which also came on the heels of winning the ACC championship in Charlotte. The Blue Devils lost to Michigan State in the Elite 8 to end that season.
That is the only 1-seed Duke has earned since its last national championship, in 2015. In the previous two seasons under Scheyer, Duke was a 5-seed in 2023 and a 4-seed last season.
While this team is obviously a title contender with higher hopes, it’s worth noting that in 14 previous times as a 1-seed, Duke has never failed to reach the Sweet 16.
Duke is 6-2 in its history of playing NCAA tournament games in Raleigh — but recent history brings up a painful memory. The Blue Devils’ last NCAA tournament game in Raleigh was 2014 tournament-opening loss to 14-seed Mercer. The other loss was to St. John’s in 1979. Duke’s six wins in Raleigh in NCAA tournament games were in 1964, ’66 and 2004 (two apiece).
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