College Basketball gave us a 2026 March Madness final four preview

It’s very rare that the sport of college basketball dominates the sports world and captures the national audience before March Madness. Thanks to the way the calendar fell and ambitious scheduling by two athletic directors, Michigan and Duke squared off in one of the most anticipated, talked about, and watched regular-season college basketball games this century. It was incredible. We not only got a close, back-and-forth 68-63 game, but it was college basketball at its highest level. Saturday night was a lot of fun, but there is enough meat left on the bone that I hope we get a natural rematch in the NCAA Tournament.

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Duke

Jan 10, 2026; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Duke Blue Devils players (left to right) Pat Ngongba II, Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer, and Caleb Foster huddle during the second half against the Southern Methodist Mustangs at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

For Duke, the story of the game was Cameron Boozer. Through the first few months of his freshman campaign, Boozer had developed a reputation for playing worse in big-time matchups. Playing directly against other future NBA players like himself seemed to bring out the worst in him, and not the best. Given Michigan’s defensive tendency to not allow interior scoring, the Duke offense was either going to need an uncharacteristically high-scoring night from their guards or a transcendent, “silence the haters” type of night from Boozer.

They got the latter. Boozer went for 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists on 60% shooting from the field. The National Player of the Year debate ended on Saturday night. There’s nothing left to critique. Cameron Boozer not only won the game for Duke but also won the National Player of the Year award with this efficient and impressive performance.

Michigan

The performance from Michigan left me wanting a little more. Before the game, I wondered how Duke was going to defend athletic freak and positional matchup nightmare Yaxel Lendeborg. Through a half, it looked like they had no answers, as Lendeborg had 16 points at halftime. But he only had 5 points in the second half and ended with *only* 21.

Meanwhile, the game was marred with foul trouble on the Wolverines side. Michigan was unable to play their patented triple-big lineup for much of the game as Morez Johnson Jr picked up two first-half fouls and rim protector extraordinaire Aday Mara picked up three (while only playing five first-half minutes). Add that to the fact that Michigan shot 6-25 from 3-point range, and uncharacteristically got out-rebounded by 13, and it can be objectively stated that we didn’t see the best of the Michigan Wolverines in this game.

Possible rematch

That’s what makes me want to see a rematch of this matchup. I’m yearning for more. Can Boozer do it again? Can we see Michigan as its complete self? Well, with these two teams being non-conference foes and likely one-seeds in the NCAA Tournament, we’re looking at only getting this matchup in the Final Four or National Championship game.

Can it happen? This ball-knower says yes. What we witnessed Saturday night was the highest form of college basketball. The amount of size, strength, and athleticism on that court can not be matched by much of the sport. These are two of the top-three rated teams on KenPom and Torvik for a reason.

The level of play of these two teams makes them unlikely to be upset — they have a combined 3 losses not to each other — and would require an outlier shooting night from an opponent or missing a player due to injury or foul trouble. I hope that this great Saturday night, when the entire country watched college basketball, is not a one-off, but the first in a series of two incredible matchups between two great teams.