Siena Saints guard Gavin Doty (4) and Siena Saints middle Riley Mulvey (55) protect Duke Blue Devils ahead Cameron Boozer (12) Thursday, March 19, 2026, all the way through the NCAA Males’s Basketball Event first around sport at Bon Secours Wellness Enviornment in Greenville, South Carolina. Duke Blue Devils received 71-65. Duke has been the best team in the country this season. It’s now not a lot of a hot-take to make that declare. Then again, at the first day of the event, each flaw that we’ve noticed from the Blue Devils bubbled to the outside and nearly brought about them to have a wildly embarrassing first-round go out.
Siena had Duke at the ropes. They held a 13-point lead in the second one part, the biggest deficit that Duke had confronted all season lengthy. It used to be a crisis of a efficiency for the Blue Devils, who have been enjoying what used to be necessarily a house sport in Greenville, South Carolina. Jon Scheyer merely didn’t have Duke ready for the instant.
When interviewed at halftime, Maliq Brown mentioned the Blue Devils have been coping with some nerves and believed Siena would be a cakewalk.
I’d like to argue that one thing like this might by no means occur beneath Trainer Okay, however he did have a staff that went right down to 15-seed Lehigh. If Duke has a efficiency like this in some other around, their time within the dance can be short-lived, however perhaps this used to be the wakeup name they wanted.
You need to recognize each staff for your method in March Insanity, and TCU goes to be a vital soar in ability from a Sienna staff that necessarily performed their complete beginning lineup for the whole lot of the sport.
The Horned Frogs physically dominated Ohio State for lots of the matchup, with elite ball power from their guards on protection and competitive submit play, the place they ruled the glass and garnered 12 offensive rebounds towards the Buckeyes. Siena perceived to run out of gasoline within the ultimate 10 mins of this sport, however TCU discovered its 2d wind within the ultimate 10 mins of theirs. They received’t simply fade away in the event that they draw back early.
Freshman Cayden Boozer used to be spectacular in his first event sport, doing an ideal process of changing Caleb Foster because the offensive playcaller; then again, he struggled to get the remainder of the staff concerned. Cam Boozer, who will be the nationwide participant of the yr, had a pleasant stat line, however used to be in truth bullied by way of Francis Folefac and Riley Mulvey. Duke should do a greater process at getting him higher seems, and Cam should do a greater process of taking good care of the ball.
Optimistically, Duke learns from their first-round errors and generates offensive rim power from begin to end towards TCU. When Boozer and corporate attacked on offense, Sienna stood no likelihood of forestalling them.
With that being mentioned, Duke -11.5 is the freest guess of all time. This staff used to be the most productive within the country all season for a reason why. I don’t assume they’ll publish two stinkers in a row at the giant level.
