Despite being a No.1 seed and the ACC Champions, the ‘favorite’ tag isn’t quite sticking to Duke. With the brackets revealed on Selection Sunday, Cameron Boozer and co.’s path to the big prize is now laid out. UConn and Kansas are in the mix, meaning their roadmap is far from convenient, and this is what a typical March Madness schedule looks like.

But, according to a former NCAA coach, there’s more to Duke’s hurdles than just tight scheduling. Former St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts gave Duke the warning about a major flaw that can scar them wide open in the March Madness.

“The scary thing for Duke is if they get in foul trouble,” Roberts said at The Field of  68 podcast. “If Cayden Boozer gets in trouble, and they’re going to play against some guards that are going to attack him. If they get in foul trouble, who do they play at the paint? They’re going to have to play, obviously, Cameron, who would handle the ball a lot. They’re going to struggle. If he gets in foul trouble, it’s going to change the whole makeup of their team.”

Injuries to key players: Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba II have reduced Duke’s rotation to just 7 players. Cayden has been able to fill the shoes, largely in this time of adversity, with his role promoted from an off-the-bench player to a regular starter. He has recorded some crucial performances, including a 16-point flurry in the ACC Championship finals against Virginia while contributing immensely from the paint as an SG.

But along with this formidable scoring, Cayden’s game has been plagued by persistent foul trouble. In the conference championships alone, he committed 10 fouls and was on the cusp of getting fouled out in the back-and-forth game against South Florida, where the Seminoles tightened the defense and got the offense flowing with fast transitions.

Opponents with such profiles will be regular going into March Madness, and Boozer will have to maintain his poise if he truly wants to help the team in pressure situations and carve out a separate niche from his brother, Cameron.

Duke has been mediocre in its discipline with fouls, ranking 52nd in the nation at 15.7 per game. But at this point, conceding the bulk of fouls doesn’t just hamper the continuity of Duke’s flow but strikes at the very core of how Scheyer positions his team. Even if one of his five starters is susceptible to such struggles, the Duke head coach hardly has enough players to fill in while maintaining the same level of efficiency on the court.

Ngongba’s potential return could be the glimmer of hope they are looking for. Scheyer hasn’t given a specific timeline, but reports suggest that Ngongba’s recovery has been trending positively. “He’s doing well. The thing with this is that you can’t say on Sunday that he’s ready to go on Friday because we’re being cautious with his rest,” Scheyer said of Ngongba’s fitness.

Despite returning, there will always be doubts over his momentum in this crucial end of the season. On the other hand, Foster’s services are also far off until the Blue Devils reach the Final Four. Thus, with all these additional struggles and lack of rotations, the pressure will eventually fall upon Boozer’s shoulders, as it has always been this season.

Cameron Boozer Isn’t Giving a Thought to His Pro Career For March Madness

Whenever Duke has been stuck on the court, Jon Scheyer’s call has always gone to his team’s No.12. And in turn, Boozer hasn’t disappointed his team much, bailing them out on most of the occasions. Be it a 35-point game against Arkansas or a double-double against top-ranked Michigan, the freshman forward has always stepped in when his team needed him most.

Yet despite that, Boozer isn’t holding on to this past glory as his only motivation right now is to win the March Madness with Duke, and not a lucrative contract at the upcoming NBA draft, where he is one of the possible top-five picks.

“I’m not really focusing on that (NBA Draft),” Boozer said. “I’m just focusing on what I have to do to help my team win right now. Obviously, we have some big games coming up, so I’ll just kind of do whatever I can to help my team win.”

But amid his career season, too, Boozer hasn’t been without a nemesis. It came to light in the ACC Championship game against Virginia. Boozer, who is his team’s scoring leader, scored just around 17% in from the field, an immensely disappointing figure for his stature. Eventually, it was Boozer whose two free throws sealed the game and the championship for the Blue Devils, but the rest of his stay on the court was dismal.

It’s not a persistent issue, though, and has been a single occurrence, so far. To fulfill Duke’s title hopes, Boozer will have to make sure that this scoring slump doesn’t plague his performance at the March Madness, and on the other hand, his brother will have to improve his discipline with fouling. The Blue Devils tip off their tournament on March 19 against the Siena Saints. Quite naturally, Boozer’s Blue Devils are going in as favorites in the contest and have 99% chances of winning the game.