Duke draws Siena in March Madness
Selection Sunday set the 68-team bracket and Duke — a No. 1 seed — opens the NCAA tournament against 16‑seed Siena in Greenville, SC as first-round play kicks off this week bracket hype post.
Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville will host the East Region first‑round game on Thursday, March 19 with an approximate 2:50 p.m. tipoff(goduke.com). Duke enters as the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed and finished the season 32–2 after sweeping the ACC regular season and beating Virginia 74–70 to clinch the conference tournament(goduke.com). Siena is the East Region’s No. 16 seed at 23–11 after winning the MAAC Tournament, beating Merrimack 64–54 in the title game to earn the program’s first NCAA bid since 2010(sienasaints.com). The Saints are coached by Gerry McNamara in his second season after a program rebuild that followed a 4–28 campaign in 2023–24, and sophomore Gavin Doty averaged 21.7 points across Siena’s three MAAC tournament wins and took Tournament MVP honors(zagsblog.com). Duke is 15–0 all‑time versus No. 16 seeds and has been a one seed 16 times in program history, with the winner of Thursday’s game slated to face the victor of No. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 9 TCU on Saturday(goduke.com). Television coverage will be national on CBS with Ian Eagle, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery and Tracy Wolfson on the call, while Siena’s local radio broadcast will be carried by JAMZ 96.3 FM with Emmanuel Berbari and Conner Fenlon providing the local call(goduke.com).
