Sweet Sixteen Showdown: Duke vs St. John's

0:00On March 26, the 2026 NCAA Tournament rolls into Friday, sweet 16, with four big games that will narrow the field to the elite. Eight teams. Top seed Duke faces 5 seed St. John's at 7-10pm, Eastern on CBS from Washington, DC, followed by 3rd seed Michigan State against 2nd. Seed Yukon, around 9.45pm, over in Chicago at the United Center. Top seed Michigan battles 4th seed Alabama at 7.35pm. On TVS, in 2nd seed Iowa State meets 6 seed Tennessee later at 10-10pm. St. John's punched their first sweet 16 tickets since 1999 with a buzzer beating layup over Kansas, while Duke cruised past TCU. Yukon eyes a rare three titles in four years, something only UCLA has done on the men's side, and Michigan State dreams of their first final four. Since 1999, coaches steal the spotlight in the East region matchup, with Duke's John Shire facing Rick Patino of St. John's

1:03and Yukon's Dan Hurley up against. Michigan State's Tom Izzo, who has eight final four trips already. Meanwhile, the North Carolina coaching vacancy has everyone buzzing as top jobs like that could pull talent from still active tournament benches. Key challenges include St. John's aggressive full court press testing Duke's young guards, especially Caden Booser, though his twin brother Cameron, has handled the offense well so far. Duke might also get a boost if guard Caleb Foster returns after sitting out nearly a month. Winners from Washington advance to Sunday's Elite 8 clash there. While Chicago's victors set up their regional finale, all building toward the final four next month in Indianapolis.