Does beating Michigan make the Duke Blue Devils the nation’s No. 1 team?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Third-ranked Duke beat No.1 Michigan 68-63, likely bolstering AP hopes
- Duke dominated rebounds and 50/50 loose-ball battles to stifle Michigan
- Scheyer and players stressed staying present and improving over rankings
Is Duke No. 1?
More so, could the Blue Devils be the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA tournament?
Those were some of the questions posed Saturday night after the third-ranked Blue Devils took a 68-63 win over Michigan in the Capital Showcase game at Capital One Arena.
The Wolverines (25-2) were ranked No. 1 and lost. Houston (23-4), ranked No. 2, lost. The logical move would be for the Blue Devils to now move into the top spot when the AP poll is released Monday.
Not that it was on the minds of the Devils (25-2) after Saturday’s game.
“I mean, we came in here, it was just another game for us,” Duke freshman Nikolas Khamenia said. “We play games like this for a reason. We’re at Duke for a reason.
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“Whatever the outside noise is saying, we’re not really worrying about that.”
But should Duke be No. 1 after beating No. 1? And after Houston lost Saturday to No. 4 Arizona (25-2)?
“Yeah, we’re going to let other people decide that,” Khamenia said, grinning. “We’re going to keep our heads down, keep working, keep trying to win games.
“We want to be on top at the end. That’s all that matters.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer couldn’t have said it better. More likely, he did say just that and Khamenia was repeating it.
Learning while winning
As Scheyer sees it, there’s still work to be done before the regular season turns into the postseason and a loss is a season-ender. Losing Saturday would have been tough, and it was for Michigan, but much bigger games are ahead for both teams.
“Who I am, I’ll watch tonight and think there’s a lot we could have done better,” Scheyer said “I think that’s a good thing. I still think we can get a lot better/, but I think we’ve done that. I think this was just the next step in order to prove that and show it.
“The thing I’ve loved about these guys is that we’ve had some really good wins this year and they’re don’t relax. They’re not satisfied either.”
Saturday’s game matched the best of the ACC against the best of the Big 10. A big point of emphasis in the Duke scouting plan was to keep the Wolverines off the offensive glass and win the rebounding duel.
Duke did. Cameron Boozer, who added to his string of double-doubles, had 10 boards and a hustling Khamenia finished with nine. Patrick Ngongba added six as the Blue Devils took a 41-28 edge, easily the largest over Michigan this season.
The Wolverines had turned 13 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points in their 91-80 road win over No. 7 Purdue earlier in the week. Against Duke, they had eight offensive boards while the Blue Devils had 13 as 7-foot-3 Aday Mara was limited to 22 minutes because of foul problems.
“Obviously they’re a physical team,” Khamenia said. “We watched the game against Purdue and they got a lot of offensive rebounds that provided a lot of punch for them. We didn’t want that to happen to us.”
The Blue Devils also won many of the 50/50 battles for loose balls. Dame Sarr, Cameron Boozer, Maliq Brown, Caleb Foster … they again came through with an all-effort game.
Michigan coach Dusty May said it often seemed that his team had four players close to a ball and Duke just one and came off a step slow in reacting.
“It’s a big game going against the No. 1 team in the country,” Khamenia said. “Possessions matter. Those plays are huge.”
A precursor to something bigger for Duke
The Blue Devils hope to return to Capital One Arena in a few weeks when it hosts an NCAA tournament’s East Regional. Duke was one of the preliminary No. 1 seeds for the NCAA tournament as outlined Saturday by the NCAA selection committee.
As a Duke player, Scheyer had his sophomore season come to an end in the arena, in a second-round NCAA loss to West Virginia. Two years ago, as head coach, Scheyer’s Devils were upset by N.C. State in the quarterfinals of the 2024 ACC Tournament..
Scheyer wouldn’t mind a return to Capital One Arena this season but …
“For me, I try to stay incredibly in the present,” Scheyer said. “Of course, you sometimes know the ramifications of what games like this can do in terms of (NCAA) seeding. But I don’t know yet.
“I do know this game helped us understand what a tournament environment is all about. I really think it simulates what it’s going to be. Whether we have the opportunity to play in Washington or not, this helps us a lot.”
Maybe taking Duke to No 1.
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 6:15 AM.
