Duke men's basketball earns No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. Where and when will Blue Devils play?

Steve Wiseman, The News & Observer on Mar 16, 2025

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DURHAM, N.C. — After an impressive run through the season, including an ACC championship, the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils begin their quest for a sixth NCAA championship in their own area code.

The Blue Devils (31-3) were awarded the No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament’s East Region and will begin play Friday at Raleigh’s Lenovo Center against the winner of a First Four game between No. 16 seeds American and Mount St. Mary’s.

That First Four game will be played Wednesday night in Dayton, with the winner moving to Raleigh to play Duke.

If Duke wins its first round game on Friday, it will advance to Sunday’s second round to play either No. 8 seed Mississippi State (21-12) or No. 9 seed Baylor (19-14).

East Regional semifinal and final games will be played March 27 and 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

With Duke the No. 1 seed in the East, Alabama (25-8), a Final Four team a year ago, is the No. 2 seed, followed by No. 3 Wisconsin (26-9) and No. 4 Arizona (22-12).

Duke won the ACC championship on Saturday night, beating Louisville, 73-62, at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center despite not having ACC player of the year Cooper Flagg available. Flagg suffered a sprained left ankle in Thursday’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal win over Georgia Tech.

Following Saturday’s game, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said all indications are Flagg will be available for the NCAA Tournament.

“I can tell you that that’s exactly my intention,” Scheyer said. “It’s the same thing. I think it’s trending in a great way where Cooper will be ready to go right away in the NCAA Tournament.”

It’s the 15th time in program history the Blue Devils were placed as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament but only the third time in the last 10 tournaments. Duke was a No. 1 seed in 2015, when Mike Krzyzewski coached the Blue Devils to the program’s fifth NCAA championship.

The Blue Devils were last a No. 1 seed in 2019, when the team led by Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett also won the ACC championship before losing in the East Regional final to Michigan State a win short of the Final Four.

Scheyer, who replaced Krzyzewski as Duke’s head coach following the program’s most recent Final Four appearance in 2022, has coached the Blue Devils to a No. 1 seed for the first time in his third season. Duke was a No. 5 seed in 2023 and a No. 4 seed last season.

This season, the Blue Devils steamrolled through the ACC, going 19-1 to win the regular-season championship before beating Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Louisville in the ACC Tournament for the 23rd time in team history.

Such a performance gave the Blue Devils a chance to be the No. 1 overall seed for this season’s NCAA Tournament. But the selection committee awarded that honor to Auburn (28-5)

This is the first time Duke will play an NCAA Tournament game in Raleigh since 2014, when the third-seeded Blue Devils were upset by Mercer, 78-71. That’s part of a troubling trend for the Blue Devils, who have lost seven of their last 11 games overall at the building currently known as Lenovo Center. That includes regular-season losses to N.C. State in 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2023.

Conversely, Duke also opened the 2004 NCAA Tournament in the same building, beating Alabama State and Seton Hall on the way to reaching the Final Four in San Antonio.

That’s the same city the Final Four will be held this year, with games there on April 5 and 7 at the Alamodome.

In addition to the four East Region games in Raleigh on Friday, other East Region games will be played Friday in Cleveland, where Alabama plays No. 15 seed Robert Morris and No. 7 Saint Mary’s faces No. 10 seed Vanderbilt.

Also on Friday, in Seattle, No. 5 seed Oregon (24-9) plays No. 12 Liberty (28-6) and No. 4 seed Arizona plays No. 13 seed Akron (28-6).

The fourth city hosting East Region games is Denver, where on Thursday No. 6 seed BYU plays No. 11 seed VCU (28-6) and No. 3 seed Wisconsin plans No. 14 seed Montana (25-9).

In addition to the East Region games at Lenovo Center, the arena will also house four teams playing in the West Region. That region’s No. 1 seed, Florida plays No. 16 Norfolk State with No. 8 seed Connecticut (the two-time defending NCAA champion) playing No. 9 seed Oklahoma on Friday. Winners of those two games will play Sunday for the right to advance to the West Regional in San Francisco.

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