Duke basketball: 3 takeaways from brutal NCAA Tournament draw

The Duke basketball team is back in the NCAA Tournament with a tough draw. 

Selection Sunday always provides the hottest takes of the season about which team got an easy path to the Final Four and which are the toughest. And the Duke basketball program is not immune to those takes.

Duke fans think the path for the Blue Devils to win the title is the hardest while non-Duke fans think the Blue Devils were given a cakewalk to New Orleans.

Here lies the truth: no one knows anything.

This tournament is so good and so unpredictable that you don’t really know if a No. 3 seed will dominate the No. 14 seed.

Watch Coach K’s final NCAA Tournament with a free trial of Sling TV

What if a No. 9 seed stuns the No. 1 seed?

Nonetheless, the Blue Devils are back in the field for the first time since the 2019 tournament and were slotted as the No. 2 seed in the West Region.

ALSO READ: Duke barely hangs on for No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament

Perhaps the team could have been in a more favorable geographical location if it had not lost on Saturday in the ACC Tournament Championship or in home games against Miami, Virginia, and North Carolina.

However, Duke will face the Cal State Fullerton Titans, the champions of the Big West Conference, in the Round of 64.

Duke basketball still with things to fix before NCAA Tournament

There are not many people surrounding the Blue Devils who feel overly confident heading into the NCAA Tournament given the recent play of the team.

Duke’s defense was mediocre at best during the ACC Tournament, and it was exposed by Virginia Tech on Saturday night.

Teams will be looking to quickly exploit the deficiencies of the Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament and be the school that ends the Hall of Fame career of Mike Krzyzewski.

Which team might that be? We look at the takeaways from the West Region.