It wasn't easy, but No. 1 seed Duke punched its ticket to the Elite Eight on Friday night by taking down No. 5 seed St. John's in a 80-75 thriller.
Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans combined for 47 points in Duke's win over St. John's, and yet, it was Caleb Foster who was the true X-factor for Jon Scheyer's squad. Despite suffering a fracture in his right foot a few weeks ago, he returned to the spotlight and had 11 points in the second half.
"Still a little stunned with what happened, to be honest with you guys," Scheyer said. "He had no business playing tonight. Ninety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what's happened to him. It was incredible the way he willed us. There's no analytics. There's no stats that can measure how big this dude's heart is for what he did."
While Duke fans certainly enjoyed last night's win over St. John's, the rest of the country accused the officiating crew of rigging the game in the No. 1 seed's favor.
Fans had a big issue with the free throw discrepancy between Duke (24 attempts) and St. John's (8 attempts).
"Watching Duke win with a 20-13 foul difference makes the game look rigged," one fan wrote on X.
"Rigged. Never seen so many missed foul calls in my life. Refs have to be investigated, or maybe its just the NCAA selling a Duke upset," a second fan said.
"This might be rigged for Duke to win it all with the whistle they’ve gotten," a social media user wrote. "A team that should’ve gotten upset round one is on to the elite eight. Fraudulent."
"Fraudulent Duke survives again with heroic plays down the stretch by Evans, Foster, and the refs," another person commented.
Duke in the 2026 NCAA Tournament through 3 rounds
First Round: 71-65 win over Siena
Free throws: Duke 21, Siena 6
Second Round: 81-58 win over TCU
Free throws: Duke 23, TCU 10
Sweet Sixteen: 80-75 win over St. John’s
Free throws: Duke 24, St. John’s 8
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) March 28, 2026
Cameron Boozer calls out Duke's critics.
Following last night's win over St. John's, Boozer made it clear that Duke won't be distracted by its critics.
"You can watch the media. Everyone wants us to lose," Boozer said. "We go into Siena halftime they’re talking about I hope Duke gets upset. We played TCU they talking about, that’s a physical team we gonna get upset. Same thing with St. John’s. I think we just did a great job blocking out all the noise, focusing on what’s important."
Next up for Duke is a showdown with No. 2 seed UConn. The winner of that game will advance to the Final Four.
Tipoff for that game is at 5:05 p.m. ET.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Mar 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.