7 hours Ago By Micah Adams
Duke women's basketball (26-7, 14-4 ACC) suddenly looks like a legitimate national championship contender after rolling to the ACC tournament title. Kara Lawson's team — which finished third in the ACC in the regular season and has spent the entire season ranked steadily between eighth and 16th — avenged three losses in three days to claim its first conference tournament title since 2013. After beating Louisville to open tournament play in Greensboro, N.
C., the Blue Devils then knocked off back-to-back top-10 opponents, first outlasting Notre Dame before then putting on a defensive clinic in the second half to run away from NC State. MORE: JuJu Watkins just broke a Caitlin Clark scoring record Duke advanced to the Sweet 16 last year, its deepest run under Lawson, and hasn't made it to the Final Four since 2006.
By beating the Fighting Irish and Wolfpack, Lawson's team officially put the best of the best — looking at you South Carolina, UCLA, USC and Texas — on notice that it can't be overlooked. Where will Duke ultimately land on selection Sunday? Here's a look at some of the latest projections from major media outlets. Duke women's basketball bracket projections Sporting News: No.
3 seed Bill Bender: " The Blue Devils won the ACC tournament under coach Kara Lawson. Ashlon Jackson and Oluchi Okananwa each scored 22 points in the victory. Will the Blue Devils get a men's and women's sweep in the conference tournament? " ESPN: No.
3 seed Charlie Creme has the Blue Devils as the 3-seed in the Region 1 Birmingham region alongside 1-seed South Carolina and 2-seed TCU. Like Bender, Creme also has Notre Dame and NC State as 2-seeds despite Duke knocking off both in the ACC tournament. CBS Sports: No.
2 seed Connor Groel: "The final No. 2 seed should come down to either Duke or NC State, and this is one of the trickier decisions in this season's Bracketology. The Blue Devils beat NC State in the ACC championship Game and got redemption for all four of their ACC losses over the past two weeks, but the committee may also decide that Duke started too far behind the Wolfpack.
" NCAA.com: No. 2 seed NCAA.
com's Autumn Johnson has the Blue Devils on the 2-seed line in the Spokane 3 region alongside 1-seed USC. Johnson has both Duke and NC State as 2-seeds with Notre Dame falling to the 3-seed line. More related links Haley Cavinder announces basketball retirement with emotional Instagram post Why it's Paige Bueckers' turn to own March Madness Latest women's college basketball news.
