NCAA Tournament: Previewing the Duke-Alabama Elite Eight Clash

The top two seeds in the East Region will be playing against each other on Saturday night at 8:49 PM EST on TBS and truTV. The Duke Blue Devils, who are led by freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, will be playing against the Alabama Crimson Tide, who are led by senior Mark Sears, who’s coming off of ten 3-pointers made in his previous game. Let’s dive into what we should expect heading into this Elite Eight matchup.

Duke has the likely No. 1 pick in Flagg, who currently leads the team in every major statistical category for the Blue Devils. In his previous game against Arizona, he produced 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three blocks, and one steal while shooting 47.3% from the field and 60% from behind the arc. The 6-foot-9 forward absolutely stuffed the stat sheet and looked like a future superstar in his first game in three days.

Flagg was making shots from all over the floor as he made three 3-pointers, was finishing at the rim and had some nice mid-range jumpers. He is an extremely versatile scorer, who will be a major mismatch problem for Alabama. It’s expected that Grant Nelson will be the primary matchup for Flagg but Alabama will likely load the box and force Flagg to be a playmaker, which he does extremely well. The Duke freshman is a great playmaking forward who has great vision and an outstanding feel for the game.

Duke doesn’t have a ton of experience on its starting five, as the Blue Devils start three freshmen in Flagg, Khaman Maluach and Kim Knueppel. All of them are projected top-ten picks, so they are much different than your typical freshman. The Cliff Omoruyi matchup versus Maluach is very exciting as both big men have great size and dunk everything around the rim. It should be a great battle between the two centers.

The big difference between the two teams is that Alabama has a ton of experience, as this team is coming off a Final Four appearance just a season ago. All-American Mark Sears is looking to take them back to the Final Four. The 6-foot-1 lead guard made ten 3-pointers in his previous game and led the way to Alabama, breaking an NCAA Tournament record for most 3-pointers made in a game as they made 25 3-pointers.

This team only made ten 2-pointers in their previous game so expect Alabama to attempt a lot of shots from outside the arc versus Duke. It will be interesting to see how the Blue Devils decide to defend the Crimson Tide. Will they run them off the line and force them into shots at the paint and trust their rim protectors in Flagg and Maluach, or will they just try to force them into tough contested jumpers? It will be intriguing to see what Jon Scheyer has up his sleeve.

Nonetheless, this will be an exciting game, and both teams have a chance of winning the 2025 NCAA Championship. This will be a star studded game that will feature some of the top players in all of college basketball. The winner will make the Final Four and will need just two more games to be crowned the kings of college basketball.

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