The Duke Blue Devils did all they needed to do this week in Charlotte.
After a 6-7 close to the regular season left Duke outside of the top 16 seeds in most postseason projections, the Blue Devils swept their way through the ACC Tournament for the second title in program history.
Not only did Duke win, but head coach Chris Pollard’s team dominated. The Blue Devils scored 43 runs in four games and outscored its final three opponents 32-7.
Duke’s offense mashed 12 home runs over the four-game postseason run, including eight from the trio of Devin Obee, Ben Miller, and Zac Morris. Obee earned Tournament MVP honors after he hit a home run in each of the last three games.
The Blue Devils dropped down to a No. 2 seed in every projection after the clunky close to the regular season, but five ACC teams were considered safe bets to host a region before the tournament began. Duke emerging from one of the deepest conferences in the nation can’t be taken for granted, especially now that it means the Blue Devils sport a 39-18 record for the season.
The team certainly thinks it did enough, as evidenced by an amusing post from the team account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Alright, please let us host @NCAABaseball
— Duke Baseball (@DukeBASE) May 26, 2024
The selection show starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday with the 16 regional hosts announced.
If fans want the official Duke Wire prediction, I think the Blue Devils did enough to earn one of the spots. Expect them to be one of the last three seeds on the board, somewhere between 14th and 16th in the country, but expect postseason baseball in Durham.