Welcome to the thread for Friday’s NCAA Tournament game between St. John’s and Duke, where the winner advances to face either Michigan State or UConn in the Elite Eight. Please be respectful in the comment section and do not share any illegal streams of the game.
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analysis after the game.
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Game information
Who: 5-seed St. John’s Red Storm (30-6) vs. 1-seed Duke Blue Devils (34-2)
When: Friday, March 26, 2026, 7:10 p.m.
Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
TV: CBS
Radio: ESPN New York 880 / 1050 and Westwood One
Series History: Duke leads all-time series, 17-7. The Red Storm have not defeated the Blue Devils away from Madison Square Garden since February 26, 2000. The Johnnies are also 1-3 versus the Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament, with their only win coming in the 1979 iteration.
KenPom Predicted Score: Duke to win, 75-68 (25% chance of St. John’s win)
Injury news
There is no injury news for Friday’s NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen game on St. John’s side. Duke’s Caleb Foster will be a game-time decision despite suffering a fractured foot against North Carolina in the Blue Devils’ regular-season finale just weeks ago. Foster averages 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists and leads his team in three-point percentage at a 40.2% clip.
What to watch for
Bringing the Pressure: A path to an unlikely win for St. John’s involves forcing Duke into lots of turnovers and profiting off those extra possessions. The Red Storm scored 18 points off 16 giveaways forced against Kansas during their Second Round win on Sunday. The Blue Devils have good ball security, with a 15.9% turnover percentage allowed, but that rate has increased to 18.4% in the five games since Caleb Foster went down with a fractured foot. Even if Foster returns on Friday night, St. John’s needs to muck the game up and bring Duke into a rock fight.
Three-for-All: St. John’s hasn’t taken many threes this season, ranking 281st in the country with a three-point attempt rate of 34.7%, yet they fired at will in their first two NCAA Tournament games. The Johnnies attempted 29 long-range shots against Northern Iowa and 35 triples versus Kansas, making 32.8% of those tries over those two games. Their perimeter scoring will again be tested on Friday night against the 20th-ranked three-point defense in the country.
Razor’s Ej’: Zuby Ejiofor got the better of Flory Bidunga in his last outing, but the competition level is about to rise dramatically on Friday night against the prohibitive National Player of the Year favorite Cam Boozer. Among the many factors in their heavyweight bout in the post, the foul situation will be worth monitoring. Like Ejiofor, Boozer is elite at drawing calls and forcing his matchup into foul trouble with 6.3 fouls drawn per forty minutes, but he also does an incredible job of staying on the floor by only committing 2.0 fouls per 40 minutes. Ejiofor has done a great job of staying disciplined most of the time, but it’s of the utmost importance on Friday night. Of the nine games this season in which Ejiofor was charged with four or more personal fouls, the Red Storm lost three of those.
Big Pat: Duke’s starting center Patrick Ngongba made his return from a foot injury during the Blue Devils’ 81-58 Second Round win over TCU. His favorite number might have been four, recording that exact total in points, rebounds, assists, turnovers, and personal fouls versus the Horned Frogs. Ngongba only played 13 minutes on Saturday, but he’s in line for more action now that he’s had almost a week of rest. Assuming he’s in condition to start and play in the ballpark of his season-average 22 minutes, the Red Storm’s size dilemma grows taller. This season, the sophomore is averaging 10.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 66.9% from two-point range and 27.6% from three-point range.
Evans Almighty: In all likelihood, Duke guard Isaiah Evans will get his buckets tonight. This season, Evans scored in double-figures in all but six games, and he has eight 20-point games. Overall, Evans is second on the Blue Devils with 15.0 points per game, shooting 42.5% from the field and 35.8% from three. The important thing for St. John’s is to make it an inefficient night for Evans, as they did against Darryn Peterson when they held him to 21 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Pregame links
- Three key matchups to watch in St. John’s vs. Duke Sweet Sixteen collision
- Why (and why not) St. John’s men’s basketball could reach the Final Four
- St. John’s men’s basketball ended reputation of futility in dramatic NCAA Tournament win over Kansas
- Billionaire booster Mike Repole talks about why Rick Pitino is the perfect St. John’s coach — Steve Serby, New York Post
- St. John’s is more proof Rick Pitino’s greatness survived his devastating loss to Duke — Ian O’Connor, The Athletic
- For 73-year-old St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, ‘age is just a number’ — Greg Rosenstein, NBC News
- Duke basketball players not fazed by physical nature of St. John’s entering Sweet 16 — Kevin Connelly, Storm The Paint
- Donovan Mitchell let Blue Devils alum Paolo Banchero know “St. John’s is gonna bust y’all ass” when the Cavaliers beat the Magic earlier this week
- The Athletic’s Chris Vannini questioned if hating Duke was falling out of style. The short and long answers are both, “No.”
- Former Pitino player Jamal Mashburn said on The Rich Eisen Show that St. John’s will get into deep waters against Duke
