For the second consecutive season, Duke will play in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed. This year, the ACC Tournament champion Blue Devils get the added bonus of playing close to home in nearby Greensboro Coliseum-about an hour away from Durham.
Duke, which sits the bottom half of the East regional, opens play Thursday at 9:40 p.m. against 15th-seeded Binghamton out of the America East Conference.
The Bearcats, a relative newcomer to Division-I basketball, won the America East regular season with a 13-3 conference record and cruised in the conference tournament. Binghamton defeated defending America East champion, Maryland-Baltimore County, in the finals Saturday, 61-51. The Bearcats will bring an 11-game winning streak into the Tournament, and they boast a BCS-conference victory at Big East member Rutgers.
If the Blue Devils get by Binghamton, they'll earn a Saturday date with either No. 7 Texas or No. 10 Minnesota. The Longhorns spent some time in the top 10 this season before underachieving in the Big 12, and lost to Baylor in the conference tournament semifinals. Texas, however, owns victories over UCLA, Villanova, Wisconsin and Oklahoma this season-although the last came when the Sooners played much of the game without Blake Griffin.
Minnesota, meanwhile, went 9-9 in the Big Ten and earned one of the final at-large selections. Tubby Smith's team got off to a fast start, opening the season 16-1 with a victory over Louisville. The Golden Gophers, though, have alternated between losses and wins for the last month and haven't won consecutive games since late January.
Also in Duke's bracket are No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 3 Villanova, No. 4 Xavier and No. 5 Florida State. Should the Blue Devils advance to the Sweet 16, they will play in Boston. The Final Four will be held at Ford Field in Detroit.
-from staff reports
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