By: Ben McCormick
March 8, 2023
Coming off an electric win in Chapel Hill to claim the series sweep over its rival North Carolina on Saturday—and it's sixth straight win—Duke heads into the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., as the 4-seed with a two round bye. The Blue Devils will play their first game at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday night against the winner of 5-seed Pittsburgh and 13-seed Georgia Tech, who defeated Florida State by one-point on Tuesday.
Duke defeated both the Panthers and Yellow Jackets in the regular season. The likely matchup will be with Pittsburgh though, who is playing for a chance to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016. Former Blue Devil Jeff Capel was announced as the 2023 ACC Coach of the Year on Monday after leading the Panthers to its best season of his tenure, and falling just one game shy of an ACC regular season title.
The Panthers are led by 1st Team All-ACC section Jamarius Burton. He and Blake Hinson present a lot of problems for opposing defenses. However, Duke's Kyle Filipowski, who won ACC Rookie of the Year, was key in defeating Pitt last time out for Duke with a 28-point double-double. If the Blue Devils can keep its offense flowing the way it has at times in the last month, it should be able to come away with a victory.
A win in the quarterfinals on Thursday would set Duke up with a potential rematch with 1-seed Miami, whom Duke split the regular season series with, but lost last time out at Miami by over 20 points. The Hurricanes will have to defeat either Wake Forest or Syracuse to get to the semi-finals, but assuming they can, Duke will have its hands full with the 2023 ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong as well as All-ACC players Norchad Omier and Jordan Miller.
If Duke is lucky enough to advance to the championship on Saturday, they will likely be awaited by either 2-seed Virginia, 3-seed Clemson, 6-seed NC State, or 7-seed North Carolina. Should they get there, I'd argue Duke would rather see these teams in reverse order of their seeds.
Duke would most like to see a Virginia team that is largely reeling. Not only have the Cavaliers been underwhelming as of late, they beat Duke in Charlottesville in overtime after a highly contested call caused Duke to forfeit free throw attempts that could have won the game at the end of regulation. Duke would likely be pumped to take back the win that was stolen from them, and there is likely no better time to play Virginia than now.
Another team Duke wouldn't mind meeting would be Clemson, who beat Duke earlier in the season in a game Duke blew a late lead in. Clemson is a very up and down team, so the Blue Devils should be confident in a matchup with the Tigers.
Of course in such a closely contested ACC, there is a good chance neither of the double-bye teams on the lower half of the bracket will make it to the championship. If that is the case, Duke will be much more weary coming in. The Blue Devils won their last matchup over NC State, but it wasn't a pretty win. The Wolfpack are seeking their first ACC Champiosnhip in 36 years. The Pack matchup well with Duke and they have shooters. It wouldn't be an easy matchup for Duke, but it wouldn't be one that Duke couldn't walk away with. The Blue Devils are coming in playing better basketball than anyone in the ACC, and are the favorites to win in Greensboro.
Finally, there's the Tar Heels. And yes, UNC has clearly been the worst team of the four Duke might play on Saturday, and there's a good chance they lose any of the games between Wednesday and Friday. But...if they make it to Saturday, that isn't a game Duke wants. Not because they can't win it, but because they don't want to HAVE to be the team to put UNC's tournament hopes down again. And it is very difficult to beat a team three times in a season, especially when it's Duke/UNC. A win in this matchup would be sweet, but it wouldn't be the ideal one for Duke.
That said, the Blue Devils have to take it a day at a time. They could easily lose on Thursday and cannot take the tournament hungry Panthers for granted.
At the end of the day, let's have fun. It's March. Doesn't get any better than this.
@Duke_Wisdom
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