First NCAA tournament bracket reveal has Duke basketball paired with Gonzaga again
The first peek at the NCAA tournament selection committee’s thoughts on the tournament’s top seeds showed Duke in the top eight and no other ACC teams in sight.
Tied for first place in the ACC standings with Notre Dame, the Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3 ACC) were seeded No. 2 in the West Region in the projection of the top 16 seeds announced on Saturday.
NCAA selection committee chair Tom Burnett, the Southland Conference commissioner, revealed his committee had Gonzaga (22-2) as the No. 1 overall seed and placed in the West Region. Duke was seeded No. 8 overall, the lowest of the No. 2 seeds and placed with the Zags in the West.
Duke and Gonzaga played head-to-head once this season, with the Blue Devils winning, 84-81, in Las Vegas on Nov. 26.
Burnett said Villanova (20-6), which was seeded No. 9 overall and the best of the No. 3 regional seeds, was close to overtaking Duke. But the committee was impressed with Duke’s marquee nonconference wins in November.
“Duke has those wins against Gonzaga and Kentucky,” Burnett said during the televised announcement of the seeds on CBS. “That made the difference there.”
In Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final season prior to his retirement, Duke opened the season beating Kentucky, 84-81, at New York’s Madison Square Garden back on Nov. 9.
The Blue Devils are 5-1 in Quadrant 1 games while Villanova is 7-5. The Wildcats are a combined 13-1 against the other three quadrants, including 5-1 in Quad 2 games. Duke is 4-2 in Quad 2 games, 5-1 in Quad 3 games and 8-0 in Quad 4 games.
The NCAA committee’s Saturday bracket projection showed No. 2 overall Auburn (24-2) is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, followed by No. 3 overall seed Arizona (South) and No. 4 overall Kansas (East).
Next up is reigning NCAA champion Baylor (21-5), the No. 5 overall seed and the No. 2 seed in the South behind Arizona (23-2). Kentucky (21-5) is No. 6, seeded No. 2 in the East behind Kansas (21-4). Purdue (23-4) is No. 7 overall and No. 2 in the Midwest followed by Duke at No. 8.
Villanova is seeded No. 9 overall and No. 3 in the East, followed by No. 10 Texas Tech (Midwest No. 3), No. 11 Tennessee (South) and No. 12 Illinois (West).
The No. 4 seeds were, in order of overall seed, Wisconsin (East), UCLA (Midwest), Providence (South) and Texas (West).
The bracket projection reveal occurred 22 days prior to the actual 68-team field being announced on March 13.
Ahead of Saturday night’s home ACC game with Florida State, Duke is currently No. 12 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings and No. 10 in Ken Pomeroy’s analytics-based rankings.
Duke is No. 9 in the Associated Press top 25, the lone ACC team in those rankings.
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 12:49 PM with the headline "First NCAA tournament bracket reveal has Duke basketball paired with Gonzaga again."