Duke basketball fans still have a sour taste in their mouths after the Blue Devils suffered their first loss of the season in brutal fashion, falling 82-81 to No. 15 Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 20. Jon Scheyer's club will not take the court again until Dec. 31, when Duke opens up ACC play at home against Georgia Tech, one of the worst teams in the conference. The Blue Devils dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the AP Poll following the loss, and were also bumped off the No. 1 seed line in ESPN's latest Bracketology update.
In the recent update, the ACC still sits with a projected eight programs in the 68-team field, which would be the most for the conference since 2021 and the first time having eight or more since 2018. Duke had been a mainstay on the 1-seed line for the entirety of the season up until the latest update, and one loss has tossed the Blue Devils out of the way.
Duke basketball falls out of top-seed line in recent ESPN Bracketology, eight ACC teams still included in projected field
Duke dropped to a 2-seed, but is still the highest-seeded team out of the ACC. The Blue Devils are followed by Louisville, which is a 4-seed.
Projected NCAA Tournament teams out of ACC in latest ESPN Bracketology:
Duke: 2-seed
Louisville: 4-seed
North Carolina: 5-seed
Virginia: 6-seed
Clemson: 8-seed
NC State: 9-seed
SMU: 9-seed
Miami: 10-seed
Early in the season, there was a discussion that the ACC could have two squads on the 1-seed line, with Duke and Louisville, but two losses against ranked opponents early on have dropped Pat Kelsey's Cardinals.
Duke went 4-1 against ranked opponents through the most grueling part of its non-conference slate, and only one of its four wins came at Cameron Indoor Stadium, a 67-66 thriller over No. 22 Florida. The Blue Devils have one more elite non-con game against No. 2 Michigan in Washington, D.C., in February. Still, with how much deeper the ACC looks to be this year compared to any of the last four or five, Duke will have more opportunities than it has been used to to collect Quadrant 1 victories within its conference.
Duke will face Louisville, North Carolina, and NC State on the road this season.