NCAA Tournament 2023: 10 biggest storylines to watch for 1st day of games

4. Max Abmas vs Duke a highlight for the day

There’s only one team this season that went unbeaten in conference play and that’s Oral Roberts. It’s not an uncommon thing for the Summit League, which had South Dakota State do the same thing a year ago. This time around, it’s the Golden Eagles that dominated the league, thanks to Conference Player of the Year and top-5 national leading scorer, Max Abmas (22.2 ppg).

Oral Roberts has history in the NCAA Tournament, making the Sweet 16 as a 15 seed just a couple of years ago. Abmas was on that team and has a couple of new key pieces joining him in former Kansas guard and double-digit scorer Issac McBride, along with former Cal/Arkansas big man Connor Vanover, who is at the top of the nation in shots blocked at 7’3.

The Eagles were going to be everyone’s favorite double-digit seed to make another run to the second weekend. But they arguably got the worst draw possible in Duke, who is playing at a higher level than a 5 seed as of late, currently on a 9-game win streak. They’re finally healthy, including Dariq Whitehead, Jeremy Roach, and Dereck Lively all back. With Kyle Filipowski, playing at an all-league level, the Blue Devils are hard to deal with.

Duke will have its hands full with Abmas, who could go for 30 and break their hearts. Or the Blue Devils could steamroll the Summit League program with ease. Either way, the result will be one of the more talked about events of the day.