University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Duke University
#2 UConn Faces #1 Duke In Elite Eight Blockbuster
3/28/2026 6:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The two seed UConn men's basketball team (32-5) will play for the East Regional title on Sunday evening when it takes on top overall seed Duke (35-2) in the Elite Eight at Capital One Arena. Tip-off between the two premiere programs over the last four decades of college basketball is set for 5:05 p.m. on CBS with Ian Eagle, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery and Tracy Wolfson on the call.
Connecticut and Duke have combined to win 11 national titles, all coming since Duke's first in 1991. The two sides have met 10 times in the past with Duke holding a 6-4 edge, the last meeting coming in December 2014. Five of the all-time meetings have come in the postseason, with Duke taking wins in the 1964, 1990 and 1991 tournaments and UConn winning in 1999 and most recently in the 2004 Final Four. Sunday's contest will be played on the 27th anniversary of the 1999 National Championship, in which UConn upset Duke, 77-74, to claim the first of its six titles.
UConn advanced to the Elite Eight with a 67-63 win over Michigan State late Friday night, while Duke took down St. John's by a score of 80-75 in the opener of the session in Washington. The Blue Devils survived #16 Siena, 71-65, in the First Round before an 81-58 of nine-seed TCU in the Second Round. UConn advanced past #15 Furman and #7 UCLA last weekend in Philadelphia to return to the second weekend for the third time in four seasons.
The Huskies are playing in their sixth-straight NCAA Tournament, a new program record, and have compiled a 16-3 record in the Big Dance under Dan Hurley. On Friday night Alex Karaban became the first player this century to go 16-1 over a 17-game March Madness stretch. The redshirt senior captain has played some of the best basketball of his historic career this March, averaging 22.0 points and 5.0 rebounds on 54.5 percent shooting from the field and 44.0 percent from three in the tournament. His 66 points in three NCAA Tournament games are the most in any three-game stretch of his 148-game career.
Tarris Reed Jr. has had a huge tournament for the Huskies as well, averaging 20.3 points, 15.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 59.0 percent from the field. The big man is one of three players in modern NCAA Tournament history to post at least 60 points and 45 rebounds in the first three games of the tournament (Zach Edey, 2024 and Shelden Williams, 2006 the others). On the year, he leads the Huskies with 14.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game while checking in top-20 nationally with a 62.1 field goal percentage.
All five UConn starters score in double-figures on the season. Karaban checks in behind Reed Jr. with 13.4 points per game, followed by Solo Ball (13.0 ppg), Braylon Mullins (12.0 ppg) and Silas Demary Jr. (10.4 ppg). Ball hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished in double-figures on Friday night against MSU, while Mullins has connected on 4-of-11 over his last two games after a cold start against Furman. Demary Jr. leads the BIG EAST with 6.1 assists per game and has battled to work his way onto the court after missing the Furman game with an energy. He acts as the 'head of the snake' on UConn's top-10 defensive unit that has held UCLA and Michigan State to 60.0 ppg and both under 40 percent shooting in the Big Dance.
Duke is led nearly across the board by All-American freshman Cameron Boozer, who averages 22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game - all team-bests. Isaiah Evans scored 25 against St. John's on Friday and averages 15.2 points per game on the year. The Blue Devils grade out in the top-five in nearly every major metric and entered the tournament No. 1 in NET and as the No. 1 overall seed.
The winner of Sunday's showdown will advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
