2025 NCAA Tournament: Duke Gets #1 In The East And Opens Against Either American Or Mount St. Mary’s
The announcement show is underway and Duke will open in Raleigh as the #1 seed in the East vs. the winner of American vs. Mount St. Mary’s.
Assuming Duke wins there, the Blue Devils will advance to play the winner of Mississippi State and Baylor.
Either way, the Blue Devils will face a former Blue Devil: either Jaemyn Brakefield with Mississippi State or Jeremy Roach with Baylor (correction – Brakefield is at Ole Miss, not Mississippi State).
Oregon and Liberty are the 5/12 matchup.
Arizona and Akron will play in the 4/13 game on the bottom of Duke’s side of the bracket.
On the bottom half, we see BYU and VCU in the #6/11 game, Wisconsin and Montana in the 3/14 game, St. Mary’s and Vanderbilt in the 7/10 game and Alabama and Robert Morris the 2/15 spot.
UNC is in on the South bracket which has already sparked massive controversy. We’ll have more soon.
Clemson is #5 in the Midwest and opens against Will Wade’s #12 McNeese State. Wade of course is a Clemson graduate and was nearly the coach there a few years ago.
Louisville is #8 in the South. If they manage to beat #9 Creighton, they’ll almost certainly go up against #1 Auburn and not only has Clemson had success against Auburn in the recent past, (84-53 in 2018), the Tigers (the SEC Tigers that is) have lost three of their last four.
We’ll look at things more closely later but some quick hits:
- Michigan got UC San Diego. From what we’ve heard, the Tritons are very dangerous.
- Yale and Texas A&M should be a real slugfest.
- New Mexico and Marquette should get a long look, partly because Shaka Smart has not been a great tournament coach to date.
- We could see Colorado State in a 12/5 upset over Memphis.
- And we would take #11 Drake over #6 Mizzou, particularly if Mark Mitchell is still out or limited with a knee injury.
- BYU vs. VCU could be one of the most fun games of the first round
- We could see Clemson getting to the Elite Eight.
- San Diego State is off their recent highs, but Brian Dutcher is an excellent defensive coach and UNC’s frontcourt has been suspect. You do the math.
