Duke is locked in as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, so the ACC Tournament championship on Saturday against Louisville probably doesn't mean much for the Blue Devils' fate on Selection Sunday. They could be playing for the top overall seed in the tourney, especially with Auburn falling on Saturday — but either way, Jon Scheyer's team will be a hugely popular National Champion pick next week (assuming Cooper Flagg is back and ready to go during the big dance.)
Louisville, though, could be playing for a better seed. Currently penciled in as a 6-seed in ESPN's latest Bracketology, I think the Cardinals can leap up to the 5-line by beating Duke.
Even in a weak ACC, even though Duke will be missing star Cooper Flagg, a 19-2 record, a conference tourney championship and only one loss against a non-tourney team seems like a resume deserving of better than a six seed. They have to finish the job on Saturday though, something that North Carolina just showed us isn't so easy.
ACC Men's Tournament bracket update before championship game
Duke tries to survive without Cooper Flagg
When your star player — who is one of the best players in the country — is sidelined with an injury, it's usually hard to find silver linings. But Duke, even without Cooper Flagg, toppled rival North Carolina in the ACC Tournament semifinals despite watching a 21-point lead shrink to one in the waning seconds.
That win, without Flagg, could be enough to keep UNC out of the NCAA Tournament when the bracket is revealed on Sunday afternoon. I'd call that a silver lining.
But now Duke has moved past North Carolina, and shifts its focus to Louisville, a team that could very well knock off a Flagg-less Duke team. Louisville has been perhaps the hottest team in the country during conference play, winning 18 of its final 19 games of the season. Chucky Hepburn is perhaps the second-best player in the conference behind Flagg and was recently named ACC Defensive POY — the 6-foot-2 guard is a two-way machine.
When is the ACC Tournament championship?
(1) Duke and (2) Louisville will face off on ESPN at 8:30 PM EST on Saturday, March 15th.