The Duke men’s basketball team, unsurprisingly, kept itself as one of Joe Lunardi’s four No. 1 seeds in the updated ESPN Bracketology on Tuesday, but the Blue Devils found a familiar face in their projected region.
The North Carolina Tar Heels, now 11-6 thanks to three straight victories, slotted in as the No. 10 in Lunardi’s East region…the same region led by [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and the Blue Devils.
Even if Lunardi’s hypothetical bracket came to pass, a lot would need to go right for another Duke-UNC tournament game. The Blue Devils wouldn’t run into the Tar Heels until the Elite Eight, and their rivals would need to outlast the 2-seed Tennessee Volunteers and 3-seed Houston Cougars on the way there, but the point is that it’s possible.
Duke would face Morehead State in the opening round before taking on either Maryland or Texas Tech in the second. The Auburn Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Iowa State Cyclones took the other three No. 1 spots.
In a relatively weak season for the ACC, only three other members of the conference made Lunardi’s bracket: the Louisville Cardinals (No. 8, Midwest), Pittsburgh Panthers (No. 8, West), and Clemson Tigers (No. 9, South).