GREENVILLE, S.C. — Typically in the month of March, you are what you are at this magical point in the season.
You’re what the record says you are. You are what the committee labels you for the only three weeks that matter for basketball programs. You are what you are at the final buzzer as every time you take the court could be your last.
In the curious case of No. 1 overall seed Duke however, it is anything but. It is still a ball of wet clay, far from a fully baked product despite the wealth of talent on hand. In contrast to many of its peers in the NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils are still in the rare process of evolving—something that typically punishes you at this time of year but instead helped send them to the Sweet 16 after an 81–58 win over No. 9 TCU on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA men’s tournament.
“I feel there’s a lot of things to clean up. What’s happened with us the last two weeks is the fact that Pat [Ngongba II] and Caleb [Foster] have been out. We didn’t practice as much as I would have liked,” said coach Jon Scheyer, much happier than after the opening-round nail-biter over No. 16 Siena. “The habits we’ve developed all year, I think especially on the defensive end, the consistency we saw in the second half, I would like to see that all the time.”
After two games at Bon Secours Wellness Arena however, that hasn’t been the case for a team considered the favorite to win the national championship this season even as it dealt with injuries to its starting center and point guard.
On Thursday, it was the first No. 1 seed to trail by double- digits to a No. 16 seed after the Saints pushed them to the brink before running out of gas late. Two days later, despite the misleading final score, Duke once again found itself in a scrap against the Horned Frogs and their undersized, but physical, defense which forced 17 turnovers. That was the second most this season for the Blue Devils and was compounded by a nearly nine-minute stretch without a field goal across both sides of the halftime break.
Forget looking mortal, even with Ngongba’s return to the court for four points and 13 minutes of action, this was the most vulnerable any of the top-four seeds in the tournament has looked so far.
“We came out soft, we gave them confidence and we said now’s the time. Let’s get stops. Let’s get a run going. Let’s do what we do,” said forward Cameron Boozer of the second half. “We came out and we did that, and we went on our run.”
The biggest wake-up call came with 16 minutes to play, with Scheyer calling a timeout just before the media break to settle his team down and reinforce the message he’s consistently harped on when things get tight. As much as the outside perception of Duke was built upon blowing out fellow ACC opposition or having Boozer add to his highlight reel as the national player of the year front-runner, it’s on the other end of the floor which has keyed nearly every major victory in 2026.
“We know our identity—our identity’s defense. I think we’re going to evolve naturally just because we have a good team, we’re going to keep learning and understanding the type of basketball we have to play against the caliber of teams we’re playing moving forward,” said guard Cayden Boozer after a nine-point, five-assist night. “We’re gonna evolve. But at the end of the day, we know our identity, and that’s defense.”
That provides an extremely high floor for the Blue Devils—they rank No. 1 in KenPom’s defensive efficiency—but it has not been there for a full 40 minutes yet in the tournament. This March run led to a number of new rotations and lineups as Foster remains relegated to a scooter this month and Ngongba has shuffled in and out.
Yet in those stretches when the team does dial up the pressure and intensity on defense that comes with everything but the program’s famous floor slap, it can also be incredibly devastating.
Just ask the Horned Frogs, who looked helpless at times down the stretch as they dealt with everything getting thrown their way on both ends of the court. An early switch to a matchup zone by Duke stymied any progress TCU had coming out of the break and then the Big 12 team floundered even further with foul trouble compounding the issue.
Before you knew it, a close affair in steamy conditions in the South Carolina foothills turned into a 41–18 run in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.
“We forced the turnovers we wanted to force, but it just seemed like things just weren’t going our way,” said coach Jamie Dixon. “We battled and kept going, and then I think we just let it get away from us.”
“I thought in the first half we were just very perimeter oriented. Credit them, they have a very good defense. They pressure you. They have active hands,” added Scheyer. “I thought in the second half we just had more poise of understanding how we’re trying to fight for the rim and making more really simple plays.”
The biggest recipient of many of those simple plays was Cameron Boozer, who had just two points at halftime but finished with a game-high 19 to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists. It wasn’t just a case of the forward being more aggressive either—though he was at times as has been the case in key moments all season—but also the product of stops leading to points in transition and better ball movement. Boozer also benefited from the different spacing in the paint with Ngongba and fellow center Maliq Brown each pulling extra defenders into their orbit.
All told, four of Duke’s starters scored in double figures before eventually finding the bench early as things devolved into a rout during the final minutes.
Perhaps the extra rest and practice time before they head to the East Regional in Washington, D.C., next week will allow for Scheyer and his staff to dial into what worked in the second half. Maybe they can even play a full game with such intensity on both ends of the court, too.
They will certainly need it given their next opponent will be either the Big East champion St. John’s and Rick Pitino or a Kansas team that has one of the front-runners to be the No. 1 overall pick this summer. Another Hall of Fame coach or blueblood program appears on tap after that if they want to reach Indianapolis and a second straight Final Four.
This team will be no strangers to Capital One Arena at least, having largely stamped themselves as the team to beat this season by their win over Michigan barely six weeks ago. Duke has largely not looked the same since, its ceiling tantalizingly obvious but not yet on full display so far this tournament it has certainly survived and advanced in.
“We’ve been that team this whole time. We have a couple guys down, but we got to step up. Whether you got five guys, seven guys, nine guys, we have to keep playing and keep being us,” said Cameron Boozer. “We figured out a way to win the ACC championship. I don’t feel like we’re close [to the team that beat Michigan]—we are that team.”
Time will tell on that as the top seed in the tournament ends its first weekend of action in the very rare position of having to evolve on the fly.
More March Madness From Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Duke Is Still a Work in Progress—and That’s the Scary Part.
