With Selection Sunday exactly a month away, Duke may not have as much work to do as many expected to play its way into a top seed.
Duke is currently the No. 7 team in the nation in the eyes of the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, which revealed its top 16 teams up to this point in the season Sunday afternoon on CBS. That ranking would make Duke a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Virginia is running away with the ACC even after a home overtime loss to Virginia Tech Saturday for its first conference defeat, and it has earned the respect of the committee with the No. 1 overall ranking and a clear path to a No. 1 seed. The other three top seeds if the season ended now would be Villanova, Xavier and Purdue.
If the tournament started today, the Blue Devils would be the No. 2 seed in the East Region with Villanova as the top seed, Texas Tech as the No. 3 seed and Ohio State seeded fourth.
Other ACC teams in line for top-four seeds are Clemson at No. 9 and North Carolina, which was ranked No. 12 after a strong week with wins against Duke and N.C. State. The Cavaliers, Tar Heels and Tigers are the only other teams in the Blue Devils’ general geographic region in the committee’s top 16. The results of the next month will decide which two teams get to stay close to home and play the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Charlotte.
The Blue Devils were widely thought to be a strong candidate for a No. 1 seed before last Saturday’s stunning loss to St. John’s, and the defeat against the Tar Heels Thursday night made matters worse. They will likely fall out of the top 10 in the next AP poll for the first time of the season Monday, but are still in the mix in the only rankings that will matter in the middle of March.
The selection committee's full top 16 can be seen below.
1. Virginia
2. Villanova
3. Xavier
4. Purdue
5. Auburn
6. Kansas
7. Duke
8. Cincinnati
9. Clemson
10. Texas Tech
11. Michigan State
12. North Carolina
13. Tennessee
14. Ohio State
15. Arizona
16. Oklahoma
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