There’s a good bit of work and play before we know exactly how things will shake out for the tournament, and who will be this year’s master of bracketology.
One opponent that is very possible for Duke’s opening game: Tennessee State. It’s a #1 vs. #16 seed that’s made for TV. Why?
Because it would pit former Duke teammates Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer against each other.
Smith, like Scheyer, played for Mike Krzyzewski and was also an assistant alongside his old teammate.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has
Tennessee State as the #15 seed in the East, and has them playing the #2 Michigan State Spartans… but until Sunday, he had them as Duke’s opening matchup.
The Selection Committee always swears on a stack of Bibles that they never take interesting matchups into account, and maybe that’s true. If it is, it’s foolish.
You wouldn’t want to manipulate things in such a way that the tournament loses credibility, but if you can get Duke-Tennessee State in a #1 vs. #16 matchup, you upgrade that game from who really cares to… hey, that’s kind of cool.
ESPN’s Bracketology currently has UMBC as Duke’s opening opponent, and while that has echoes of the stunning upset the Retrievers gifted Virginia in 2018, it wouldn’t get nearly as much attention as Scheyer vs. Smith.
The bottom line is that if they can make it happen, look for it to happen. It’ll be catnip for the media, and that will make the committee very, very happy.
Incidentally, while the MEAC tournament won’t start until Wednesday, ESPN currently has Kenny Blakeney’s Howard playing Michigan in the Midwest’s #1 vs. #16 matchup.
Johnny Dawkins’ UCF program is currently pegged as the #11 seed in the West and would open against #6 BYU.
Finally, former Scheyer assistant Jai Lucas will have Miami back in the hunt, and ESPN sees the Hurricanes as the #7 seed in the West.
It’s looking like Duke will be well represented in March Madness.
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