Duke basketball set up for March success after updated NCAA Bracket

The Duke basketball team is primed for a serious run in March after the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee released its Top-16 seeds of the bracket.

Saturday afternoon the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, led by Duke Athletic Director Kevin White, released its Top-16 teams, at the current moment, in the bracket.

The committee seeded those teams one through four and placed them in its respective regions.

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Duke was ranked as a No. 2 seed, the top overall No. 5 seed, and was placed in the East Bracket where the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 are played at Madison Square Garden.

Joining the Blue Devils in the East was No. 4 San Diego State, No. 9 Maryland, and No. 15 Butler.

The Aztecs were the No. 1 seed, Terrapins were No. 3, and Bulldogs were No. 4.

Baylor was ranked as the No. 1 overall seed, along with Kansas and Gonzaga, while the No. 2 seeds that join Duke are Dayton, Louisville, and West Virginia.

Based on these initial projections it is a best case scenario for Duke in which the Round of 64 and Round of 32 would be played in Greensboro and then the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 being played in New York.

If chalk would prevail in this bracket, San Diego State would be forced to play Duke in New York, which would significantly favor Duke on paper.

There is still a lot of time in the season for things to change, but Duke currently controls its own destiny to be in the East Bracket and be a No. 1 seed as Kansas and Baylor, who were both projected as No. 1 seeds, must lose at least one more time with one more scheduled meeting in the regular season and a potential meeting in the Big 12 Tournament.

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Duke will look to continue its NCAA Tournament seeding on Saturday night against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Dean E. Smith Center which would significantly drop the Blue Devils and go down as a ‘bad loss’ due to the Tar Heels’ struggles this season.