NCAA’s 1-Word Reaction to Duke’s Historic March Madness Achievement
With their 93-49 win over No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Duke Blue Devils made a bit of history.
They also had some help from Clemson, Louisville, and North Carolina.
The ACC has had at least three teams in the NCAA Tournament every year since 1980, and this year was no different. However, unlike it’s other three conference counterparts, Duke is the only team that advanced out of the first round this year, and North Carolina is the only other team from the league to win a tournament game (the Tar Heels beat No. 11 seed San Diego State 95-68 in the First Four).
According to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Duke advancing to the Round of 32 with no other league representatives is a first for the ACC.
“Duke is officially the only ACC team in the Round of 32,” Borzello wrote. “Via @ESPNStatsinfo, it’s the first time since the NCAA started allowing multiple teams from the same conference into the NCAA tournament in 1975 that the ACC will have one or fewer teams in the Round of 32.”
Over that same span, Duke has made it to at least the second round of the NCAA Tournament 39 times (it also won five national titles and was the runner-up twice.)
While Duke’s 44-point first-round win was impressive, the Blue Devils being the ACC’s lone hope of winning a national title elicited a pretty animated response from the official NCAA March Madness X account.
“Wow. ” the @MarchMadnessMBB account tweeted.
No. 9 seed Baylor awaits Duke on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. ET in the second round. The winner will play the winner of No. 5-seeded Oregon versus No. 4-seeded Arizona in the Sweet 16.
