There are enough factors to make Duke, the No. 1-ranked team in the East, an appealing choice to win the college basketball national championship.
The pieces will be in place if freshman Cooper Flagg is back in action for the NCAA Tournament.
It’s no mystery that Duke has been eyeing its status as a potential No. 1 regional seed for weeks. That’s how it turned out as the Blue Devils landed the top spot in the East Region.
While Duke is no stranger to national championship aspirations, those became even more evident during the past week. When Flagg went down, the Blue Devils’ dialogue came through crystal clear — they were looking at the big picture.
That means doing everything possible to ensure Flagg’s return for the NCAAs. The Blue Devils won three times in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament, but Flagg contributed only two points and sat out the last two games with a sprained ankle.
Those results only strengthened the perception of what Duke is capable of accomplishing.
“Cooper is a great player,” freshman teammate Kon Knueppel said. “But this is a great team. I think we’ve showed that, and we’ve really banded together.”
Coach Jon Scheyer acknowledges that the ultimate goal is the national title. Forced to pivot publicly in that direction during the ACC tournament, the third-year coach pointed out that the main objective was to have Flagg ready for the NCAA Tournament.
“I don’t want to make any proclamations of what’s success or not,” Scheyer said. “For me, success is making sure we’re connected, we’re tough, we do everything we possibly can to put ourselves in that position, and I can say that we are.”
The Blue Devils are a No. 1 regional seed for the 15th time.
In Scheyer’s first season, the Blue Devils won one game in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, they won three times and reached the Elite Eight.
A natural progression would take them a couple more rounds — or to the cusp of a title.
The potential path is appealing, beginning barely a half-hour drive from campus. The first- and second-round games are in Raleigh, N.C.
Yet Duke hasn’t exactly excelled in Raleigh in recent years. The Blue Devils have lost six road outings to North Carolina State since 2010. They also suffered a 2014 first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament to Mercer in the building the Wolfpack calls home.
“Sure, we’ve lost there a bunch,” Scheyer said. “You can’t assume wherever you are that’s going to be any easier at all. We’re not going to approach it that way.”
After facing either American or Mount St. Mary’s on Friday, the Blue Devils’ path becomes more challenging on the surface. A second-round game would come against either eighth-seeded Mississippi State or ninth-seeded Baylor, which happens to have former Duke standout guard Jeremy Roach in its backcourt.
That would be a matchup dripping with intrigue.
And then there could be a clash with fourth-seeded Arizona, which has Blue Devils’ nemesis Caleb Love, though Duke won a road game vs. the Wildcats in November.
And if Duke keeps going, a potential showdown could loom against Alabama.
Duke was ranked seventh in the preseason poll. Alabama, at No. 2, was one of the teams ahead of the Blue Devils. The Crimson Tide are the East Region’s No. 2 seed.
Regardless of how the bracket shakes out, the Flagg factor is going to be the overriding theme until he steps back on the court. When he’s there, it tends to be the prevailing topic as well.
Yet remember, it’s not all about the points from Flagg. In Duke’s last 14 games, he has led the Blue Devils in scoring in only three of those (of course, he didn’t play at all in the past two).
Duke will be content with taking one step at a time. That could get them where they want to go.
“We’ve approached this whole year, finish what’s right in front of you,” Scheyer said.
–Field Level Media
