WASHINGTON (AP) — Jon Scheyer is the coach at Duke, the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed and arguably the top brand in college basketball.
Among his peers in the East Region, however, he's also the neophyte. His opponent in the Sweet 16 — Rick Pitino — coached in his first Final Four a few months before Scheyer was born. The other regional semifinal pits 71-year-old Tom Izzo against two-time national champ Dan Hurley.
“They’re all great coaches
that have done it at the highest level. A ton of respect for each coach and their programs," the 38-year-old Scheyer said. "I think that’s what makes it exciting, right? It’s going to be an exciting atmosphere, high-level basketball, high-level coaching for sure.”
The nation's capital has turned into championship central this week. The four teams in Washington for the Sweet 16 on Friday night — Duke, St. John's, Michigan State and UConn — have won a combined 13 national championships. The other 12 teams remaining in this year's field have a total of three.
The coaches in the East have five national titles. Pitino and Hurley have two each, and Izzo has one. Only one other coach in the Sweet 16 — Arkansas' John Calipari — even has one to his credit.
Duke faces fifth-seeded St. John’s in Friday night’s first game, followed by second-seeded UConn taking on third-seeded Michigan State.
“The 16, you usually see some teams that have been in it year in, year out. I think that’s fun for me since I’ve gotten a chance to be in it more than a few times, see some of the guys that made it,” Izzo said. “This is like a Final Four, if you ask me.”
Any time Pitino goes up against Duke in the NCAA Tournament, it stirs talk of when his Kentucky team lost to the Blue Devils in the 1992 Elite Eight on Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater.
Pitino insists he looks back on that matchup somewhat fondly, since his unheralded players were treated as heroes in defeat by Kentucky fans.
“They got their jerseys retired to the rafters after that loss, which you never see,” Pitino said. “But I always treasured that game. I thought every time I’ve watched that game, I didn’t grimace about Christian Laettner hitting the shot. I thought it was one of the greatest games played.”
Pitino did beat Duke in the Elite Eight on his way to winning a national title at Louisville in 2013.
The Blue Devils could get a significant boost Friday if Caleb Foster is able to return from a broken foot. Scheyer said Thursday the point guard will try to play.
This is the fourth time Duke and St. John's will face each other in the NCAA Tournament. In 1979, 10th-seeded St. John's knocked off second-seeded Duke — part of the infamous “Black Sunday” in Raleigh, North Carolina, that also included top-seeded North Carolina being eliminated by Penn.
Duke beat St. John's in the 1990 and 1991 tournaments, the latter time in the Elite Eight.
The UConn-Michigan State game is a rematch of sorts after the Huskies beat the Spartans 76-69 in an exhibition on Oct. 28.
UConn coach Dan Hurley said he identified plenty of things to work on after that game — which was presumably the point.
“They exposed us,” Hurley said. “I think we gave up six or seven free-throw rebounds in that game, our transition defense was a joke, we got assaulted on the glass. There was a lot there in that game that we were able to show the guys this week.”
UConn big man Tarris Reed didn't play in the exhibition, but the Spartans have some familiarity with him because he played two seasons at rival Michigan before debuting with the Huskies in 2024-25.
“The way he’s playing right now, he’s playing his best basketball. I think we are, too,” Michigan State's Carson Cooper said. “It’s going to come down to who’s the most physical, who is the most aggressive. I think we got to be able to hit first. I think the fact that we seen him before definitely helps, for us kind of relaying that and how he plays to the guys that haven’t seen him.”
Michigan State and UConn have met twice in the NCAA Tournament previously. The lower seed won each time — Michigan State in the 2009 national semifinal and UConn in the 2014 Elite Eight.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
