No matter what happens tonight against North Carolina in the regular season finale, the Duke Blue Devils will be seeded fourth in next week’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

 

The top of the conference tournament bracket was sealed on Saturday afternoon when Florida State beat Boston College at home to finish at 16-4 in the regular season. It is the first regular season title in the program’s history.

 

Depending on what happens between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, Duke could still finish in a three-way tie for second place with a 15-5 record should they defeat North Carolina. However, due to Duke having lost to both Louisville and Virginia in the regular season, the Blue Devils are locked into the lowest seed among the three programs.

 

Should North Carolina pull the upset over the Blue Devils on Saturday, it would drop Duke to 14-6 in league play which would drop Duke to fourth place outright.

 

It’s been a season of runs to the final horn of the regular season. A few weeks ago after beating Florida State and North Carolina in back to back games it appeared as though the Blue Devils had the inside track toward winning the regular season. However, Duke lost three of five games including back to back losses to North Carolina State and Wake Forest.

 

Speaking of the Wolfpack, should NC State win their Wednesday afternoon game, it would set up a Thursday quarterfinal match-up with the Blue Devils in a rubber match between two teams that alternated blowing out the other. NC State won by 22 in Raleigh while Duke won by 19.

 

Assuming Duke can win that quarterfinal match-up, it would likely mean a rematch against the Seminoles in the semifinal.  Three weeks ago the Blue Devils came off an emotional high after rallying against North Carolina in Chapel Hill to beat Florida State less than 48 hours later in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

 

Duke will open defense of their 2019 ACC Tournament championship in Greensboro at 2:30 PM on Thursday afternoon against the winner of the #5 seed and the #12/#13 seeds. The 2nd seed’s game tips off at 7:00PM on Thursday against the winner of the #7 and #10 seeds, while the #3 seed takes on the winner of the #6 seed and the #11/#14 seed at 9:00PM on Thursday night.

 

While it has been ten years since Duke has won a share of the ACC’s Regular Season title, they have won two of the last three conference tournaments (2017 and 2019). 2015 was the first time in program history that the Blue Devils won the NCAA Tournament without winning either the Regular Season title or ACC Tournament Championship.