I’ve been a sports fan my entire life, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been as interested in the Xs and Os on the court or field as a lot of my peers.
But if championships were that easy—that the most talented team won every season, or that the team destined to win it all did in fact do so—then they wouldn’t mean as much.
With Duke’s season officially in the books, the Blue Zone breaks down each player's season, including comparisons to their preseason projections. We previously looked at Jaylen Blakes, Bates Jones, Joey Baker, Theo John, Trevor Keels, AJ Griffin, Jeremy Roach, Mark Williams and Wendell Moore Jr. Last but not least is Paolo Banchero.
The stakes have never been higher for No. 2-seed Duke and No. 8-seed North Carolina, with the two sides facing off Saturday in the Final Four in New Orleans for the first time in NCAA tournament history. With a spot in the national championship game on the line, here's who our beats predict will come out on top.
It’s finally here: Duke and North Carolina, in the Final Four, for all the marbles. The Blue Zone’s got you covered with some can’t-miss prop bets.
Each March brings a new breakout star for every college basketball team, and for Duke that player has undoubtedly been Jeremy Roach. The only problem is that he isn’t breaking out at all.
Duke comes in as a four-point favorite in this Elite Eight matchup against Arkansas in San Francisco. At the end of this one, the winner at Chase Center will come away with a spot in the Final Four in New Orleans and a chance at putting their team in the college basketball record books.
Duke will face off against Texas Tech at 9:30 p.m. at Chase Center in San Francisco, and given the way these two teams match up and the one-point spread in favor of the Red Raiders, all signs point to a nail-biter. Let's see who our beats pick to move on to the Elite Eight.
It wasn’t just a 20-6 run to close out the game. It was a 20-6 run filled with a series of moments in which Duke’s young stars stepped up and made plays, a series of moments that the Blue Devils turned into highlights that very well could end up going down in history.
Duke enters its Round of 32 matchup as 6.5-point a favorite and has a tough draw against Michigan State. The Blue Devils last played the Spartans in the 2019-20 season and won, but the last time these two squads met in the NCAA tournament, Michigan State came out on top. Let's take a look at who our beats think will be moving on to the Sweet Sixteen.
Freshman Kelly Chinn led the way for Duke at the Valspar Collegiate.
Duke finished seventh out of the 14 teams at the Arizona Intercollegiate this week.
Freshman Kelly Chinn, the No. 1 golfer in his class, has made his way into Duke's tournament five.
Sophomore Charlotte Tomkinson (center) finished 25th overall Friday.
Zheng signed with Duke as the No. 5 recruit in the country in Nov. 2019.
