The Duke basketball team reached the Final Four during the 2024-25 NCAA tournament. Duke is hoping for more this season, as head coach Jon Scheyer has the team in the field once again as a no. 1 seed. The Blue Devils are led by freshman star Cameron Boozer, who is averaging 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds a game.
While Duke is the overall no. 1 seed, that doesn't mean they are going to walk their way through this year's tournament. In fact, there are a few reasons why the Blue Devils are on upset alert.
Here are those reasons why Duke will need to be on the top of their game, moving through March Madness.
Duke has a very difficult region to navigate
The Blue Devils didn't get any favors from the NCAA tournament selection committee. Duke is in a region with Big East champion St. John's, not to mention that league's tournament runner-up in UConn.
College basketball blue-bloods Michigan State, UCLA and Kansas are also in the Blue Devils' region. In fact, there is one truly incredible fact about this region. There are four coaches in this region who have already won a national championship!
Those coaches are: UConn's Dan Hurley, Kansas' Bill Self, St. John's' Rick Pitino, and Michigan State's Tom Izzo. All of those coaches in the East region have won championships, and some have won more than one. That makes this draw a simply brutal one for the Blue Devils to have to walk through.
There's another reason why Duke fans have a reason to be concerned about March Madness.
Duke basketball is banged up right now
The Blue Devils are also entering the NCAA tournament with some injuries to key players. Big man Patrick Ngongba, who played on last year's Final Four team, has been hurt with a foot injury.
“He’s been doing his therapy, working with the medical team,” Scheyer said of Ngongba, per the News and Observer. “They’re just benchmarks. It’s a day-by-day thing to see how he can handle the next step and whether that soreness goes away. I can tell you he’s improving … but I can’t say what that means as far as later in the week in terms of timing or readiness, because we have to take it step by step.”
Ngongba's injury would be enough to concern Duke fans. There's another key player banged up, though. Guard Caleb Foster is also dealing with a foot problem, and had surgery on that injury. He might just be out for the tournament.
“I’ve never seen a guy shoot so much in a scooter,” Scheyer said of Foster. “He gets in the gym and he gets his shots up every day … his voice, he’s right there with me in the huddles.”
Both players missed the ACC tournament championship game. Duke won that game, over Virginia, in a close game. Boozer was smothered, and his twin brother Cayden needed to step up and save the day for Duke.
That situation could easily happen once again in the NCAA tournament. If Foster and Ngongba can't play or are extremely limited, it is likely that opposing teams will target Cameron Boozer. Duke will need others to step up and lead them against some of the best teams in the country.
Duke opens NCAA tournament play with a round of 64 game against no. 16 seed Siena. That game is scheduled for Thursday.
