Duke earns top seed in 2026 NCAA Tournament: Here's when and where the Triangle teams play

The Duke Blue Devils earned the top overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

Duke (32-2) will play Siena (23-11) at 2:50 p.m. ET Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina. The game airs on CBS. The teams are competing in the East Region.

If the Blue Devils defeat the Saints, they play on Saturday against the winner of the No. 8 seed Ohio State and No. 9 seed TCU.

Arizona, Michigan and Florida earned the other No. 1 seeds in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

If the Blue Devils advance to the Sweet 16, they will play No. 4 seed Kansas, No. 5 seed St. John's, No. 12 seed Northern Iowa or No. 13 seed California Baptist.

The other side of the East Region includes No. 2 seed UConn, No. 3 seed Michigan State, No. 6 seed Louisville, No. 7 seed UCLA, No. 10 seed UCF, No. 11 seed South Florida, No. 14 seed North Dakota State and No. 15 seed Furman.

Watch: WRAL's Chris Lea and Brian Murphy share their instant reactions to the NCAA March Madness bracket

2026 NCAA Tournament bracket: Click or tap here

Duke defeated Virginia on Saturday night to win its second consecutive ACC championship and third in four seasons under head coach Jon Scheyer.

"We’re not done yet," Scheyer said after the game. 

Scheyer discussed the play of freshman guard Cayden Boozer, who has scored 16 points in each of his past two games.

"He's played in crunch time throughout the whole season," Scheyer said of Boozer in an ESPN interview. "There's just more on his shoulders now, obviously, with Caleb [Foster] being out and we have great confidence knowing he was ready for us."

Duke is going to be without starting point guard Caleb Foster (right foot fracture) for the first few weeks of the NCAA Tournament. Foster missed the entire ACC Tournament.

Boozer's twin brother, Cameron Boozer, is the ACC Player of the Year.

Duke has won 11 games in a row entering the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils' last loss came on Feb. 7 against North Carolina. Duke's only other loss came on Dec. 20, 2025, against Texas Tech.

Scheyer spoke Saturday after the game about injured center Patrick Ngongba, who has missed the regular-season finale against North Carolina and all three ACC Tournament games. Ngongba has dealt with foot soreness.

"It's a day-by-day thing to see how he can handle the next step and whether that soreness goes away," Scheyer said of Ngongba. "I can tell you he's improving. I feel very positive about it, but I can't say what that means as far as later in the week in terms of timing or readiness, because we have to take it step by step."

NCAA selection committee chair Keith Gill said the committee "talked about Duke and some of the injuries they're going through."

Gill said the selection committee felt Duke would be closer to full strength by the start of the NCAA Tournament.

Each season, Scheyer has guided the Blue Devils deeper in the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Duke made the Final Four. The Blue Devils made the Elite Eight in 2024 and the round of 32 in 2023.

Duke has the best NCAA Tournament winning percentage among schools that have played at least 20 games. The Blue Devils hold a 134-51 record in the tournament.

The Blue Devils' 126 NCAA Tournament wins rank third all time behind North Carolina (134) and Kentucky (132).

NC State to play Texas in First Four game

NC State (20-13) will play Texas (18-14) at 9:15 p.m. ET Tuesday in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. The game airs on truTV. Both are considered 11 seeds in the West Region.

“I’m shocked by going to Dayton, but, I mean, look, we did it to ourselves,” NC State coach Will Wade said. “I told our guys there are no victims in the room.”

The winner will play No. 6 seed BYU (23-11) and freshman star AJ Dybantsa in the first round at 7:25 p.m. ET Thursday in Portland, Oregon.

On Sunday, a reporter asked NC State coach Will Wade about the quick turnaround to Dayton and then a potential trip to Portland if the Wolfpack win on Tuesday.

"We [have] people who handle all the logistics," Wade said.

The winner of the first round game against BYU will play the winner of Gonzaga (30-3) and Kennesaw State (21-13) on Saturday in Portland, Oregon.

The Wolfpack were one of the last four teams in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. NC State, Texas, SMU and Miami (Ohio) were the last four in.

Wade mentioned the Jan. 17 home loss to Georgia Tech, which is a Quad 4 loss.

“We didn’t handle business down the stretch,” Wade said. “So, look, we’re fortunate to be in. We’re happy to be in.”

Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State and Indiana were the first four out.

NC State closed the season losing seven of its last nine games.

"We are who we are. We got what we deserve. We got what we earned, and now it's our time to see if we can do something with this opportunity more than we've done in the regular season," Wade said.

Texas defeated NC State, 102-97, on Nov. 26, 2025, in the Maui Invitational fifth-place game.

Gill said the committee typically avoids first-round games of teams who have previously played during the regular season. However, Gill said the selection committee had to "relax" its "principles" given the number of SEC and ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Eight ACC teams and 10 SEC teams made made the 2026 NCAA Tournament. There are nine Big Ten teams and eight Big 12 teams in the tournament as well.

UNC plays VCU in first round

No. 6 seed North Carolina (24-8) will play No. 11 seed VCU (27-7) at 6:50 p.m. ET Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina. The game airs on TNT. The teams are playing in the South Region.

The UNC-VCU winner will play the winner of the Illinois-Penn game on Saturday in Greenville, South Carolina.

North Carolina enters the NCAA Tournament on a two-game losing streak. The Tar Heels fell to Duke in the regular-season finale and lost 80-79 to Clemson in the ACC quarterfinals.

Wilson, an All-ACC first-team selection, is out for the season after breaking his right thumb. Wilson injured the thumb while working back from a left hand fracture. Wilson's last game was on Feb. 20. UNC is 5-3 in eight games without Wilson.

Gill said the committee discussed Wilson's injury and how it treated UNC.

"We spent a lot of time obviously talking about Caleb Wilson, and that obviously impacted the way we talked about North Carolina," Gill said.

UNC and VCU have never played before.

North Carolina has the second-best NCAA Tournament winning percentage among schools that have played at least 20 games. The Tar Heels hold a 134-51 record in the NCAA Tournament.