Duke beats TCU in NCAA Tournament Round of 32 as Cameron Boozer leads late surge

Duke advanced to the 2026 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen on Sunday after defeating TCU in the Round of 32, closing the game with a 17-2 run that erased a brief second-half deficit and turned a tight game into a comfortable final margin. Cameron Boozer, the freshman forward who entered the tournament as one of the most scrutinized prospects in the country, had a slow start before finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. The first half was uncharacteristic. The second half was not.

Duke was seeded second in their region and was expected to get past TCU, a five-seed that had played well in the first round but entered Sunday's game with clear size disadvantages across the frontcourt. The Horned Frogs made it competitive through most of the second half, taking their first lead since early in the first half at the 10-minute mark on a three-pointer from guard Trey Johnson that made it 54-52. What followed was a stretch of basketball that looked exactly like what a Duke team with this much talent is supposed to produce when the game gets tight.

The 17-2 run that decided the game

Duke's 17-2 run started immediately after TCU took the lead. Boozer scored eight of those 17 points, including two consecutive post-up buckets and a put-back off his own missed shot. Guard Isaiah Evans added two three-pointers during the run, the second of which effectively ended any realistic TCU comeback attempt at 69-56 with 3:40 remaining. TCU went scoreless for four minutes and twelve seconds during that stretch, turning the ball over three times and missing four consecutive field goal attempts.

Duke head coach Jon Scheyer made one specific adjustment that changed the game's direction. He moved Boozer from a wing-heavy position that TCU's defense was designed to contest to a more traditional high-post role that put Boozer's back to the basket and forced TCU to guard him with their power forward, who gave up four inches and nearly 30 pounds to the Duke freshman. Once Boozer caught the ball with position in that setup, TCU had no answer.

Cameron Boozer's first half and what changed

Boozer had 4 points and 3 rebounds at halftime, a performance that looked particularly quiet against the backdrop of the expectations that have followed him since he became the consensus top recruit in the 2025 high school class. TCU's game plan in the first half was straightforward: deny him the ball early in the shot clock and force Duke to run offense through its guard-heavy second unit. It worked well enough for twenty minutes. TCU's defensive scheme kept Boozer below his typical catch points, made him work harder than usual to get usable position, and converted that defensive effort into a halftime game that looked entirely winnable for the Horned Frogs.

Scheyer addressed the problem directly at halftime. Duke came out in the second half running more ball screen action to free Boozer from the denied-entry coverage TCU had been running, and by the first media timeout of the second half he had already matched his halftime point total on two post scores. His 15 second-half points on 6-of-8 shooting after the break is the number that will appear in most postgame summaries, but the 3-of-5 second-half rebounding rate on the offensive glass was equally relevant because it led to five additional possessions for Duke during the game's decisive stretch.

Boozer's NBA draft positioning and why this tournament matters

Boozer is a projected top-five NBA draft pick in most pre-tournament evaluations. ESPN's Jonathan Givony had him at number 3 on his pre-tournament board, and The Athletic's Sam Vecenie listed him fourth. The March performance will matter in a specific way for players at his level: NBA front offices watch tournament games with particular attention because they simulate playoff basketball's physicality and decision-making pressure more closely than any regular season context can. Boozer's slow start followed by a decisive second-half performance is the kind of outcome that gives scouts something real to evaluate.

His season averages entering the tournament were 17.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game in ACC play. The combination of those numbers, his age at 19, and his size at 6 feet 10 inches with a 7-foot-1 wingspan puts him in the category of prospects where the NBA lottery is essentially confirmed and the question is how high on the board he ends up. Tournament performance at this stage of the season does move draft boards. The Round of 32 game against TCU will be watched multiple times by multiple front offices before the end of the month.

Duke's path in the Sweet Sixteen and who they face

Duke will face No. 3 seed Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen on Friday, March 27 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Kentucky defeated No. 14 seed Longwood by 22 points in the first round and beat No. 6 seed Xavier 71-65 in the Round of 32, covering both games without their starting center, Amari Williams, who has been managing a right ankle sprain. Williams's availability for Friday's game will be the most-watched injury update in Duke's region between now and tip-off.

Scheyer's post-game press conference focused almost entirely on the second half's defensive communication and the adjustment that produced the 17-2 run. He declined to discuss the Kentucky matchup in any detail, saying the team would begin film preparation Monday morning. Duke's full practice session at Gainbridge Fieldhouse is scheduled for Thursday, March 26, the day before their Sweet Sixteen game.