As if the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament needed more of an advantage, Duke has gotten a very favorable whistle in its path to the Elite Eight.
FT attempts through three games:
Duke: 68
Siena, TCU, & St. John’s combined total: 22#Noticing
— Rob Wright’s Dad’s Burner (@baylorbigxii) March 28, 2026
Duke has now had three consecutive tournament games in which they either had 2x or 3x as many free throw attempts as the other team.
Duke free throw attempts by game in the tournament:
21-6 vs. Siena
23-10 vs. TCU
24-8 vs. St. John’s— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 28, 2026
While the Blue Devils took care of TCU in the Round of 32, they only beat No. 16 Siena by 6 points and St. John’s by 5, leading many online to comment on the discrepancy in calls.
Cameron Boozer:
Refs: “Blocking. Flagrant 1 on TCU. Subtraction of 20 points for the frogs and 10 free throws for Boozer.” pic.twitter.com/j8POl2NVlM
— Daniel “Mao Zedong” Pullin (@derrico_henrio) March 21, 2026
Duke fans will see this and still say the whistle isn’t a thing 🤣🤣 https://t.co/YDF4mxpHfH
— HubertsBurner (@UNCballTalk) March 28, 2026
Duke faces UConn in the Elite Eight on Sunday, where we may see fireworks from Huskies’ head coach Dan Hurley.
I am rooting for UConn just to see Dan Hurley witness the Duke whistle first hand. We may get an all time version of him lol pic.twitter.com/KMLp80EBFr
— William McCallister (@WilliamMcCall_) March 28, 2026
Seriously, he’s not going to last five minutes in that game when he gets a firsthand glimpse of the Duke whistle. He may actually pull a gun on someone. https://t.co/FWvDD6c5XT
— Jon Sasser (@jsasser42) March 28, 2026
He might have a stroke on the sideline https://t.co/DWiRZfrvAg
— Rock Chalk Blog (@RockChalkBlog) March 28, 2026
Is Duke getting a favorable whistle, or have they just been physically dominant in close games?
