ACC Shares Duke Basketball Update Before NCAA Tournament

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt Audilet | Last updated Mar 17, 2025 3:14 PM ET

The Duke Blue Devils put together one of the nation's best college basketball seasons in 2024-25, finishing the year with a 31-3 record and an ACC Tournament victory.

Jon Scheyer's Duke squad was rewarded for its impressive campaign on Selection Sunday, earning a No. 1 seed heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The Auburn Tigers were awarded the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, but Duke claimed the top spot in another ranking system — finishing as the No. 1 team in the final AP Top 25 poll.

Here's the top 5, according to the latest poll released on Monday:

Duke
Houston
Florida
Auburn
St. John's

The ACC shared the news of Duke's No. 1 spot in the AP poll with a social media post on Monday.

The Louisville Cardinals finished with the No. 10 spot, trailed by the Clemson Tigers at No. 12.

"3 ACC teams make the Top 15 + Duke secures the No. 1 spot in the final AP Poll ahead of @MarchMadnessMBB," the ACC wrote on X.

3 ACC teams make the Top 15 + Duke secures the No. 1 spot in the final AP Poll ahead of @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/t1cAFUSkoz
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 17, 2025

Duke is the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 seed in the East Region. The Blue Devils will face off against the winner of a First Four matchup between the No. 16 Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers and the No. 16 seed American Eagles in the first round.

Duke lost its best player, National Player of the Year favorite Cooper Flagg, when he suffered an ankle injury in the Blue Devils' ACC Tournament quarterfinal win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The superstar freshman is expected to return for his team's postseason run.

"From my perspective, it's full steam ahead. I want to get Coop back as quickly as I can, and he wants to do the same." Duke coach Jon Scheyer said on Sunday. "... We are hoping he can start to progress starting tomorrow with doing some on-court work and then build up to where he can practice later in the week.

"Our goal is for Friday. No question about that."

Duke's first round NCAA Tournament contest will tipoff at 2:50 p.m. EST on Friday.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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