Get to know Duke's first-round opponent in the 2024 NCAA Tournament: Vermont
Posted March 18, 2024 9:30 a.m. EDT
Updated March 21, 2024 4:57 p.m. EDT
Brooklyn, N.Y. — Duke earned a No. 4 seed and will play the No. 13 seed Vermont Catamounts on Friday in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:10 p.m. ET Friday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It airs on CBS.
The two teams are playing in the South Region.
Duke (24-8, 15-5 ACC) lost to NC State 74-69 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.
"It's a new season," said Duke guard Tyrese Proctor on Thursday. "So everyone is 0-0 going into March and into this tournament. So I mean, we learn from it and we just move forward closer."
The Blue Devils ended the regular season with an 84-79 loss to rival North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Before that, Duke had won three consecutive games. Duke won eight of its last 10 regular-season games.
Vermont (28-6, 15-1 American East) has won 10 consecutive games entering the NCAA Tournament, including the American East conference championship game – the Catamounts’ third straight -- in a 66-61 win on Saturday over UMass Lowell.
"Very focused and grateful to get this opportunity to play Vermont," said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. "A lot of respect for them and Coach Becker. They have an amazing winning program. And any time you're playing somebody that's a champion of their league, their tournament, we know it's going to be a big-time game."
Friday’s game will mark the Catamounts’ third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Under head coach John Becker, Vermont has made the NCAA Tournament in 2012, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023. However, the Catamounts have yet to make it out of the first round in Becker’s tenure.
Becker has been the head coach at Vermont since 2011. He worked as an assistant coach at the school from 2006 to 2011.
Vermont made it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament once in program history. In 2005, Vermont beat Syracuse in overtime to advance to the second round of the tournament under then-head coach Tom Brennan.
This season’s Vermont team has three players average double-digit scoring: Junior guard TJ Long (12.2 points per game), junior guard Shamir Bogues (11 points per game) and senior guard Aaron Deloney (10.9 points ger game).
Bogues, a transfer guard from Tarleton State, is also the team’s leading rebounder at 5.2 rebounds per game. He was named the American East Tournament’s most outstanding player. In Saturday’s title game, he had 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists, four steals and no turnovers.
Vermont has an 0-2 record this season against Quad 1 teams.
