Selection Sunday finally arrived, and to nobody's surprise, the Duke Blue Devils were the first No. 1 seed announced in the bracket, looming large over the rest of the East Region.
One of the most notable teams in the Blue Devils region was none other than the Kansas Jayhawks, who snuck in as a No. 4 seed, and were lined up to play Duke in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Not only did that have two blue-blood programs on a crash course to face each other relatively early in the Big Dance, but it lined up Duke star freshman Cameron Boozer and Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson to finally face each other at the collegiate level.
Darryn Peterson vs. Cam Boozer may finally happen in NCAA Tournament
When Duke downed the Jayhawks at the beginning of the regular season, Boozer had one of his (now typical) great performances, scoring 18 points, bringing down 11 rebounds, and dishing out five assists.
Peterson? Well, he was riding the bench with one of his numerous injuries, illnesses, and cramps that plagued his season for Kansas.
This go around, there's no excuse for the Kansas freshman to miss a minute of action, especially when it's win or... move on... for the Jayhawks and head coach Bill Self.
While Boozer has played and started in all 34 of Duke's games, averaging 33 minutes per game, Peterson has played in just 22 games, averaging only 28.4 minutes per game. Beyond that, the Blue Devils' star freshman has earned more points, assists, and rebounds per game so far.
Boozer was dubbed the ACC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. He's on a crash course to be named the national player of the year as well, and this game would be just another opportunity for him to prove his dominance over Peterson and the rest of the country.
While both teams have to get through their first two games of the tournament to actually share a court in the third round, the Blue Devils have a slightly easier path, "only" having to beat 16-seed Siena Saints and then the winner of the 8-seed Ohio State Buckeyes versus the 9-seed TCU Horned Frogs.
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks would have to beat the 13-seed Cal Baptist, and then the winner of the 5-seed St. John's versus the 12-seed Northern Iowa.
If Duke and Kansas both make it to the Sweet 16, they would play on either Thursday, March 26, or Friday, March 27, to determine which team would move on to the Elite Eight.