Duke earns top overall seed in 2026 NCAA Tournament

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Duke will play Siena on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina. NC State will play Texas on Tuesday night in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio.

Posted 3/15/2026, 10:03:41 PM Updated 3/15/2026, 10:26:58 PM

Duke coach Jon Scheyer cuts down the net after the Blue Devils defeated Virginia to claim the 2026 ACC Tournament title.

By Mark Bergin and Brian Murphy, WRAL reporters

The Duke Blue Devils earned the top overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

Duke (32-2) will play Siena (23-11) on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina. The teams are competing in the East Region.

If the Blue Devils defeat the Saints, they play on Saturday against the the winner of the No. 8 seed Ohio State and No. 9 seed TCU.

Duke defeated Virginia on Saturday night to win its second consecutive ACC championship and third in four seasons under head coach Jon Scheyer.

"We’re not done yet," Scheyer said after the game.

Scheyer spoke Saturday after the game about injured center Patrick Ngongba, who has missed the regular-season finale against North Carolina and all three ACC Tournament games.

"It's a day-by-day thing to see how he can handle the next step and whether that soreness goes away," Scheyer said of Ngongba. "I can tell you he's improving. I feel very positive about it, but I can't say what that means as far as later in the week in terms of timing or readiness, because we have to take it step by step."

Each season, Scheyer has guided the Blue Devils deeper in the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Duke made the Final Four. The Blue Devils made the the Elite Eight in 2024 and the round of 32 in 2023.

NC State to play Texas in First Four game

NC State (20-13) will play Texas (18-14) on Tuesday night in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. Both are considered 11 seeds.

The winner will play No. 6 seed BYU (23-11) and freshman star AJ Dybantsa in the first round on Thursday in Portland, Oregon.

The winner of the first round game against BYU will play the winner of Gonzaga (30-3) and Kennesaw State (21-13) on Saturday in Portland, Oregon.

Texas defeated NC State, 102-97, on Nov. 26, 2025, in the Maui Invitational fifth-place game.

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The once-proud Atlantic Coast Conference hasn’t placed more than five men’s basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament since 2021. But the league is expected to earn eight berths when the field is announced Sunday.