The No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils are in the Sweet 16 after defeating No. 9 Baylor, 89-66, on Sunday.
Duke will face No. 4 Arizona on Thursday night in Newark, New Jersey. On Sunday, the tip times were announced for the Sweet 16, and Duke-Arizona is slated to start at 9:39 pm ET.
The final game of the night on Thursday is Arkansas-Texas Tech at 10:09 pm ET, although that game is taking place in San Francisco.
But Duke-Arizona tipping off at 9:39 pm ET is not good news for the Duke fans. BYU and Alabama play the first game in Newark at 7:09 pm ET on Thursday, which means the Duke-Arizona game could start even later than the projected time.
After the announcement came out, Duke fans were not too happy with the late tip time.
“Why 10:09pm tip on Thursday,” one fan asked. “Of course we get the late game smh,” another Duke fan wrote. “We HAVE to fix these tip off times for next year.
The round of 32 was bad enough with 4 games starting after 8pm, but to have sweet 16 games starting at 10pm on a Thursday??? What are we thinking??” said another.
“Duke game is going to end after midnight local time. I’m sick,” another said.
“Duke is playing on the East coast and the game is set to tip at 9:40, so more realistically 10 o’clock or later. Who at the @NCAA is in charge of these terrible start times?” said another. “Lateeeee night on Thursday,” another Duke fan wrote.
Another hoops fan had gripes about the Sweet 16 times in general.
“Hate the way they stagger the Sweet 16 times – 7:09/7:39/9:39/10:09 I get they want to abandon the daytime games after first weekend but make it 5/6:30/8/9:30 literally perfect balance of gap & small overlap.”
One Duke fan went the other way regarding the late tip, although it’s not a very common reaction.
“people griping about the late tip time for Duke. all I see is more time for every Duke alum in NY to make their way to Newark before tip.”
While the tip time is not ideal, Duke should be the favorite to defeat Arizona, especially with the way the Blue Devils have been playing to begin March Madness.