The Duke Blue Devils are the No. 1 overall seed in the men's basketball NCAA Tournament, but they aren't invincible.
The Duke Blue Devils enter the Division I men's basketball NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed in the East region and the tournament's No. 1 overall seed.
The East region boasts Duke, No. 2 UConn, No. 3 Michigan State, No. 4 Kansas, No. 5 St. John's, No. 6 Louisville, and No. 7 UCLA, so it is widely considered the most loaded region. It was already going to be tough for Duke to reach the Final Four. But it just got tougher.
On Wednesday, Duke head coach John Scheyer confirmed that sophomore center Patrick Ngongba II is "very unlikely" to play in Duke's first-round matchup against No. 16 Siena on Thursday afternoon, per ESPN's Dave Hale.
Ngongba has been out since March 2 with a foot injury.
"We're taking it day by day," Scheyer said. "He's itching to play, but we're not quite there just yet. [...] We'll do everything we can to get ready for Saturday and go from there."
Scheyer added, "It's not a setback. It's not just anything where you can say two weeks, and you're back, 12 days, and you're back. You have to take it step by step with what he's doing. Everything is going in a good direction, but I think the comfort that we want him to feel is not quite there. So, that's something we can only know day to day."
The Blue Devils are also without junior guard Caleb Foster, who fractured his foot against North Carolina on March 7.
Without two key starters, even more pressure falls on the shoulders of freshman forward Cameron Boozer, a phenom expected to be a top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Boozer has been named the ACC Player of the Year, ACC Rookie of the Year, and The Sporting News National Player of the Year.
Boozer now has the chance to become a Duke legend if he can lead the Blue Devils to their first national championship since 2015.