Duke basketball is a No. 1 seed in March Madness and a favorite to go all the way, so plenty of brackets will be busted if the team falls to No. 5 seed St. John’s on Friday, March 27. The Duke Blue Devils go up against the St. John’s Red Storm on Friday, and the team who wins the showdown will advance to the Elite Eight.
Duke is projected to win this game, according to odds experts, but nothing is promised in the NCAA tournament. The Duke vs. St. John’s game will air on CBS and can be streamed on Fubo, which gives a free trial to new subscribers.
“Duke’s disarming, unplugged-controller start to the first round was one of the tournament’s strangest moments thus far,” Steven Louis Goldstein of The Athletic states of this matchup in a pregame piece. “Remember when Siena had a double-digit halftime lead? The Blue Devils rallied down the stretch to avoid disaster, then used a second-half surge to drop TCU in the round of 32. It’s about how you finish, right?”
Duke Basketball Announces Sweet 16 Milestone Before St. John’s Game
On Thursday, March 26, the Duke Blue Devils took to social media to celebrate a Sweet 16 milestone, just as the games were starting.
In a post on X, the team announced, “Duke makes its 31st appearance in the Sweet 16, and its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament regional semifinal under fourth-year head coach Jon Scheyer.”
So, it’s quite impressive that Duke is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 31st time and that this also marks the third consecutive time in the tournament with coach Scheyer. The only time his team didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament was his first year there, which is understandable following Coach K’s reign.
Also on X, the team celebrated star player Cam Boozer, stating that he “becomes just the fifth freshman to win the Oscar Robertson Trophy (NPOTY). The last three have been Blue Devils.”
Duke vs. St. John’s Predictions
In Louis Goldstein’s pregame piece about the game, he emphasized that this is shaping up to be a close one. “Duke has a lot of length through Dame Sarr on the wing and Maliq Brown in the paint,” he states. “Patrick Ngongba II is back in the rotation after a nagging foot injury. Together, they’re able to contest shots without fouling. Boozer might be the name on the marquee, but this matchup should bring the floor-slap spirit on both ends.”
Meanwhile, according to Daniel Kohn of CBS Sports, the SportsLine model has a clear favorite to win it all. “After 10,000 simulations of St. John’s vs. Duke, SportsLine’s model is going Over on the total (141.5 points),” he states. “The Over has hit in six of the last seven head-to-head meetings. The Over has also hit in five of the last nine Duke games.”
For the 2026 March Madness tournament, Duke is the most common pick to win the national championship. According to research from the NCAA, roughly 25.15 percent of brackets in the NCAA.com bracket challenge game have Duke winning it all.
Duke Basketball Makes Announcement Before St. John’s Game