March Madness is alive and well. The NCAA Tournament field will be released later on this Selection Sunday. But, before we got there, one more team officially punched their ticket, and they did it in historic style. The Duquesne Dukes will dance for the first time since the 1970s!
The Dukes earned their first tournament bid in 47 years, with the last time they participated in the event being back in 1977.
We’re talking pre-Magic and Bird days here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been a very long time.
Duquesne boasted about their dramatic run through the Atlantic-10 Tournament and their victory with a celebratory post on X. “BELIEVED,” they posted, with a graphic featuring the team.
The Dukes won 57-51 over the VCU Rams, who are no stranger to March. As history reminds us, VCU busted a lot of brackets back in 2011 when Shaka Smart first emerged into the college basketball landscape. VCU has a strong program and is constantly competing to be the best in the A-10. So Duquesne’s win certainly came earned.
Hilariously, one aspect of the game that also had people talking? Confetti fell prematurely from the rafters of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. CBS’ Kevin Harlan had a blast calling that action, as he so often does.
In all, it’s a historic Sunday for the Duquesne Dukes. Later on, they’ll hear their names called on Selection Sunday as they earned their way into the NCAA Tournament. The only thing to wonder will be where they will be seeded. For what it’s worth, Bracket Matrix projects them as a 12-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The sports world had much to say about the historic win.
The NCAA Tournament begins this week!
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022