America’s Favorite Villain Is Back: Duke Enters March Madness as the Team to Beat

CHARLOTTE — Bow down to your overlords, ACC. The question now: Is the rest of the nation ready to do the same?

It is March and wouldn’t you know it, America’s favorite team to root against is back in the NCAA men’s tournament and primed to win it all.

Better than ever?

The next three weeks will ultimately determine that. As it stands right now, in the wake of a 74–70 thriller over a Top 10 Virginia team to capture the ACC tournament championship, the case is being made. Loudly. Clearly. Directly.

“You’ve got to be fortunate to be in a lot of these moments as a player and an assistant coach. As the head coach, you’ve got to instill confidence in our guys to really handle these moments,” said coach Jon Scheyer, Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blasting all around him. “I think no matter what you draw up, no matter what you draw up, you have to have guys that are wired to be in this moment. We have guys that aren’t fazed, they thrive in this environment. That’s No. 1.”

Cameron Boozer cuts down the net after Duke’s ACC title 👏 pic.twitter.com/z1bj4v7WZz
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 15, 2026

One can tick off the list of the Blue Devils’ successes and be wowed, even at a program whose history can be overwhelming. They just capped off a regular season that had few peers in 2025–26 and finished a tidy 32–2 heading into the Big Dance—just a single shot separating them from a perfect run through league play. They are almost assuredly set to be the No. 1 overall seed in the eyes of the selection committee on Sunday evening and are the lone team among 365 to rank in the top four of KenPom’s adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.

Scheyer also accomplished something not even his mentor, Mike Krzyzewski, did—or anyone in the league for that matter—by winning three ACC tournament titles in his first four seasons in charge. He’s layered on a pair of regular-season trophies and remains a still hard to fathom 42–2 against the conference the last two trips around the sun with the two losses by nine combined points.

They are not only good, they have been very much great whenever the occasion has called for it.

That wasn’t quite the feeling around this team a week ago, when injuries to starting guard Caleb Foster and center Patrick Ngongba II threatened to lower the ceiling of a collection of talent that featured one of the greatest freshman campaigns ever by Cameron Boozer as their fellow contenders racked up victories.

It wasn’t quite the feeling just two days ago either when Florida State, perhaps the lone matchup issue they’ve had twice in ACC play this year, continued to push them in a tournament opener they sweated out and won late.

But that’s the thing about this season’s edition of Duke, whenever the pressure seems to get ramped up, the Blue Devils have handled it without breaking a sweat. They’ve turned timely defense into crowd-inducing three-pointers. They’ve forced scoreless streaks on one end of the court and gone on double-digit runs that extinguish hopes for all but a handful of ranked teams capable enough to stagger back.

That wasn’t quite the case last season, where their procession to the Final Four was so dominant that many wondered if they were really, truly, tested for the different kind of duress that the real tourney forces upon you. Despite having one of the statistically best teams in the sport’s history going into the national semifinals last season in San Antonio, it was a prophetic line of questioning that proved true when they collapsed in the final minutes from a double-digit lead against Houston.

“The returners that came back from last year knew that feeling that we had [in San Antonio]. We had that the whole summer,” says senior Maliq Brown, who finished with four points, five rebounds and a block in Ngongba’s absence. “We had a great group of freshmen that came in and we were all on the same page from Day 1. It’s showing up now.”

That it did in an all-time classic from a conference that has a few of those to its name. Shaking off much of their 77–51 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium just a few weeks ago, the Cavaliers showed why they are not a team to take lightly when filling out a bracket. The teams exchanged the lead 16 times, tied it a dozen more and never had a lead of more than seven points.

Duke forward Cameron Boozer goes to the basket against Virginia center Ugonna Onyenso. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Mostly though, Virginia coach Ryan Odom was able to unleash 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso to completely change the game with increased playing time in the second half. The Kansas State transfer was prime Dikembe Mutombo down low, sans finger wag but with all of the same deterrence whenever a Duke player came within a few feet of the rim.

Onyenso blocked five shots in a four-minute span going into the under-12 timeout—keeping his team alive as it went cold from the field offensively—and finished with nine. That not only set an ACC tournament record for a game, but helped him nearly double Tim Duncan’s previous conference mark across a run of three games at Spectrum Center this week.

He was also key in limiting Boozer, who just barely hit double figures in every game of his college career after a 3-of-17 night from the field to finish with 13 points, the last two of which came at the line to finalize the score in the final seconds.

Said Scheyer: “Just keep going, that was the main thing I kept telling [Boozer].”

As much as it was an off night for one Boozer, it has been the emergence this week of his brother, Cayden Boozer, which was the real story. After Florida State threw several junk defenses at the Blue Devils’ new starting guard (including not guarding him at all beyond the arc), the other one of the legacy twins in the program stepped up big time the last two nights. Against the Cavaliers’ normally reliable press, he helped bypass the defense at midcourt quickly and finished with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists alongside normally reliable wing Isaiah Evans (game-high 20 points).

In cutting down the nets for the second straight year two hours from campus, Duke also made even more history in becoming the first ACC school to capture league titles in football, men’s and women’s basketball in the same season. While Saturday may have been the most expected out of that trio, it didn’t dampen the euphoria felt around the program that has been showered with plenty of confetti the past four months.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” athletic director Nina King says. “No surprises what Jon Scheyer has done. He’s been absolutely incredible. Happy for this team, happy for the program and for our athletic department. It’s been a really great year.”

Few are denying that, but now comes the hard part: elevating the entire run with a sixth wooden plaque and some more nets when the Final Four rolls into Indianapolis in April.

Can Duke validate all that it’s been in the ACC on the only stage bigger for the program?

“Of course,” says Cameron Boozer. “We’ve been saying it all year, it’s what we do.”

There’s no denying the Blue Devils are lords of the ACC. All that’s left is to see if they can cast the rest of the country under their spell over the next three weeks, too.

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