Duke enters the NCAA Tournament as the prohibitive favorite, but the path will be far from easy for Jon Scheyer's Blue Devils.
Duke went 32-2 in the regular season, capturing both the ACC regular season and tournament titles to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance. The Blue Devils will be in the East Regional, opening the tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, before making the trek up to Washington, D.C. for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, assuming they can avoid an early upset.
Duke has been college basketball's best team this season, but in a single-elimination tournament, it only takes one bad night - or a bad couple of minutes - for your season to end. Memories of last season's Final Four loss to Houston are still fresh in the minds of every Duke fan.
Duke's 2026 NCAA Tournament Hub:
Seed: No. 1 overall
Region: East
Next Opponent: vs. 16-seed Siena on Thursday, March 19th at 2:50pm ET
East Regional Bracket:
1. Duke
16. Siena
8. Ohio State
9. TCU
5. St. John's
12. Northern Iowa
4. Kansas
13. Cal Baptist
6. Louisville
11. South Florida
3. Michigan State
14. North Dakota State
7. UCLA
10. UCF
2. UConn
15. Furman
Despite being the No. 1 overall seed, Duke has arguably the most difficult path to the Final Four among any of the top seeds. It'll have to play a battle-tested power conference opponent in the Round of 32, regardless of whether it's Ohio State or TCU that advances.
After that, it'll be a murderer's row of national championship-winning coaches in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight with the likes of Bill Self, Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, and Dan Hurley all standing in Duke's way of making it to a second straight Final Four.
Links to Duke March Madness content:
- Jon Scheyer will have to slay some coaching giants to get Duke back to the Final Four
- Cameron Boozer and Darryn Peterson are on an NCAA Tournament crash course
- Duke fans unhappy with Blue Devils' brutal March Madness path
- Jon Scheyer's latest Patrick Ngongba update
- Wally Szczerbiak slams Selection Committee over Duke's NCAA Tournament draw