A No. 1 seed was not enough to get Duke through the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. The Blue Devils hope home-court advantage will propel them to at least the Sweet 16 this time.
Duke received the No. 2 seed in the Memphis region and will play its first two games on a very familiar floor—the hardwood of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“It’s good to have a home game, have our own fans here, sleep in your own bed,” senior Joy Cheek said.
The team learned of its fate in the Krzyzewski Center for Athletic Excellence Monday night, watching ESPN as the network unveiled the tournament bracket.
Even though Duke could not be sure of the seed it would receive until the selection show, the Blue Devils were aware that Cameron would be one of the host sites for the first and second rounds before the season started.
But the team still did not know if Duke would be picked to play on its own court and had little time to wonder about possible scenarios during a campaign that produced ACC conference and tournament titles.
“I think we’re a team that’s been focused game-by-game, and now it’s exciting that the moment to focus on [the NCAA Tournament] is here,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I don’t think we thought about [playing in Durham] much during the year. There were too many other things to think about.”
The Blue Devils will take on Hampton—a No. 15 seed—in the first round Saturday. The Pirates received an automatic bid to the Big Dance by winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament.
“I know that they’re athletic,” McCallie said of the Pirates. “They’re just a team that traditionally has dominated their league. They’re a very good team, and they’ve had some consistency with what they do.”
After winning the opening game last year, top-seeded Duke fell to ninth-seeded Michigan State in the second round on the Spartans’ home floor—a bizzare twist of events that came about because of the NCAA’s use of predetermined tournament sites. But now Duke has a chance to erase those bad memories on its very own court.
Also, if the Blue Devils beat Hampton and defeat either LSU or Hartford in the second round, there’s a chance they could play sixth-seeded Texas in the Sweet 16.
And that would mean that Duke would face its former head coach, Gail Goestenkors, for the first time since she left Durham for Austin and the Longhorns.
This would seem to be at the forefront of the minds of the seniors. After all, Goestenkors recruited them and was their coach for a season. Yet the Blue Devils, as a team, are focusing on what they need to do to win Saturday’s game rather than worrying about possible future opponents.
“You create your tomorrow in this kind of tournament,” McCallie said. “Nobody creates it for you, and so you really want to see a very edgy, excited team.”
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