Duke’s Potential Road To The Final Four
The bracket is all set and the Duke Blue Devils are the number one seed in the South region. There has been talk that Duke was given the easiest region, and should have a cake walk to the Final Four, and while their region may not be the strongest, getting to the Final Four will certainly be no easy task. Here is a breakdown of who they might matchup with in every round leading up to the Final Four and how those games might go for Duke.
Round of 64: Duke will matchup with the winner of the play-in game between Robert Morris and North Florida. Whichever team wins the play in game will be riding high after winning an NCAA tournament game in Dayton, but a 16 seed has never beaten a one seed, and that likely won’t happen here either.
Round of 32: In the second round Duke will take on the winner of the 8/9 game between San Diego State and St. Johns. You will remember that Duke has already played St. Johns this year in Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm gave a game effort, but in the end Duke came back for Coach K’s 1000th win. If the rematch were to happen, St. Johns would be without center Chris Obekpa giving Duke a decided advantage inside with Jahlil Okafor.
San Diego State on the other hand is a team that plays great defense but struggles to score. There are people that think, if SDSU can beat St. Johns in the first round, they will give Duke trouble in the second round. I am not one of those people. Although they play great defense SDSU will not be able to stop Duke’s potent offense, or keep up with them scoring wise.
Sweet 16: This is the part where the bracket can get blown up. Georgetown is the four seed and Utah is the five seed, but there has been a lot of talk about both of those teams being upset in the first round, which would lead to a second round matchup between 12 seed Stephen F. Austin and 13 seed Eastern Washington. I personally don’t believe Utah will lose in the first round, but could definitely see Georgetown losing to Eastern Washington due to Georgetown being over-seeded.
I believe the most likely outcome is that Duke will face off with Utah if they make it to the Sweet Sixteen, and Utah does present some problems. They have one of the best players in the country in Delon Wright. He is a guy capable of carrying a team deep into the tournament all by himself. Utah is coming into the tournament stumbling a little though, having lost four of their past seven games, but given the draw they have gotten a Sweet Sixteen birth is well within reach. Unfortunately for them Duke should be able to handle them in a sweet sixteen matchup.
Elite Eight: The bottom of the South region features two very good teams playing great basketball coming into the tournament. If Duke were to make it to the Elite Eight they would likely find themselves playing either Gonzaga, or Iowa State. Gonzaga may have the best team they have ever had, they are deep and supremely talented. Gonzaga is considered one of the teams that has a legitimate chance of winning a championship, and should they meet up with Duke they would give them quite a battle.
Iowa State won the Big 12 tournament for the second year in a row, and are coming into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country. The Cyclones were a popular pick to win the championship last year until Georges Niang broke his foot and was forced to miss the tournament. Niang is healthy going into this year and can cause matchup problems for any team out there. Iowa State is one of the few teams that can keep up with Duke offensively, so a matchup between those two teams would be fun to watch.
Duke will start their tournament off on Friday night, and although it may seem like they have an easy road to the Elite Eight, it is March Madness and anything can happen.