Selection Sunday 2018: Projected No. 1 seeds for March Madness

Duke Blue Devils (26-6)

The Duke Blue Devils were the team to beat before the season began. Grayson Allen opted to return for his senior season and all Mike Krzyzewski surrounded him with was a recruiting class that featured the number one rated point guard Trevon Duval, the number one rated shooting guard Gary Trent Jr., the number one rated center Wendell Carter Jr. and the number one rated power forward — and overall player — Marvin Bagley III. No other team in the country had the star power to match what Duke could trot out in its starting lineup alone.

Duke racked up early wins over Michigan State, Texas and Florida, looking every bit the part of the preseason juggernaut people expected. However, conference play was a wake up call for the young Blue Devils. They lost two of their first three ACC games (to Boston College and North Carolina State nonetheless). That was followed by Bagley III missing four games due to knee issues towards the end of conference play. Yet, the absence of Bagley III coincided with Allen’s return to form.

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All Bagley III did was take home ACC Player of the Year and ACC Rookie of the Year — the first player since Jahlil Okafor to win both in the same season. The freshman forward, who could still technically be playing high school basketball, has been absolutely dominant on the court and we’ve seen stellar play from a freshman lead a team to a national championship in recent years. (Okafor with Duke in 2015 and Anthony Davis with Kentucky in 2012. Bagley III could join them this year).

Duke could conceivably rack up wins against North Carolina and Virginia if they take home their second consecutive ACC Tournament title. If that happens and either Kansas or Xavier don’t make it to the title game of their respective conference tournaments, there’s an outside chance that the Blue Devils make the leap to top seed status.