NEWARK — While every team begins the college basketball season wanting to win a national championship, there are others who go into it surrounded by expectations it will.

Duke and Alabama both had that this season. And with the teams pitted against one another in Saturday night’s East Region championship game at Prudential Center, the pressure to meet the expectation has reached a height neither has experienced yet.

“It’s the hardest game to win because you’re balancing two things,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said of playing in the Elite Eight. “One, each team has great momentum going into this game . . . each team has won three games in a row. And then, obviously, you’re an inch away from the promised land, going to a Final Four. With that at stake, it brings out really high-level basketball, desperation and the competitive level, [because] you’re that close.”

Each program’s expectations come from different places.

Duke is steeped in a championship tradition with 17 Final Four appearances and five national titles. Scheyer lived it as part of the 2010 championship team.

But in three seasons since taking over for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, the deepest he’s guided a team is to last season’s Elite Eight.

“It’s heartbreaking when you lose and it’s the best feeling when you win — that’s what you work for,” Scheyer said. “That’s why you recruit. That’s why you build a team. All the time, energy and all that goes into those moments.”

And he’s built quite a team with three freshmen expected to be among the first 10 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, including star Cooper Flagg, the consensus No. 1 selection.

Alabama’s expectations are mostly rooted in the climb it’s made in six seasons under coach Nate Oats, including reaching the Final Four last season only to fall in the semifinals to eventual champion Connecticut.

“I don’t think we’d want it any other way: If you’re at a program with no expectations and you’ve been there six years, it means you haven’t been doing your job,” Oats said. “Whatever you call it, pressure [or] whatever you want, the expectation is you win. That’s what we expect around here now.”

Many in the Blue Devils’ rotation — freshmen Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach — weren’t on the team last season. They may feel the pressure spun off that disappointment. But they also have a different one.

The trio has been part of a team that’s rolled to a 35-3 record and is heralded for how well they work together. This is their one and only chance at a national championship, an opportunity the group doesn’t take for granted.

“Every game could be our last, so I think it’s . . . cherishing these moments together, knowing that every game could be our last one together,” Flagg said. “So [we’re] just playing for each other and having that connectivity. It’s kind of what’s got us to these moments all year long.”

“That comes [to] our mind, too, knowing that this could be the last game so that we attack it harder now,” Maluach said. “Go in with the mentality to win and be prepared.”

Each team has more than one thing it will need to combat. Top of mind for Duke is Alabama’s three-point shooting. The Crimson Tide (28-8) went 25-for-51 on three-point in dispatching BYU on Thursday night. And while Duke is ranked fourth in defensive efficiency and holds opponents to 30% shooting from beyond the arc, there is far more to ’Bama than just outside shooting.

“I’ll say this: If you want to take the three away from us, you can take the three away from us,” Oats said. “I’m going to say it’s harder to hold Cooper under his averages because there’s a way to take the three away from us. . . . [but] if you want to completely run us off the line, we’ll try to go score 70 or 75 points in the paint.

The Crimson Tide will want to stifle Flagg’s scoring and playmaking, but they know that Duke has plenty more weaponry with a roster of players who will go on to the NBA (five are regulars on mock draft boards).

“You’re not going to hold him down to 10 points — that’s just not happening,” Oats said of Flagg. “What you can’t have is him scoring 25 and getting eight, nine, 10 assists and [drawing] all these fouls. You’re going to have to decide what you want to do and [with] some of their guys, you’d better not help very far off because they can really shoot it.”

The University of Alabama Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved contracts for 17 Alabama athletics coaches and staff members Friday. The approved contracts include 15 football assistants and staffers, headlined by first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.

Grubb was given a two-year contract that will pay him $1 million per year through Feb. 28, 2027. Grubb joined coach Kalen DeBoer’s staff this offseason after he held the same position with the Seattle Seahawks. Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne pointed out Grubb’s recent position in the pros as a key point in working out the details of his contract at Alabama.

“He had an existing contract with the Seattle Seahawks that helped us with the structure of our compensation for him,” Byrne said. “And there are playcallers within the SEC that are in that range. So it was the market rate for us.

“From a salary standpoint, we have usually been very aggressive from a football salary standpoint, and that is something we have promised Coach DeBoer from a staff-stability standpoint in maintaining his group that he has.”

Other notable football contracts approved by the board Friday include General Manager Courtney Morgan, wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard and defensive line coach Freddie Roach. Other football staff members, including Director of Player Personnel Bob Welton and Director of Sports Performance David Ballou also received new contracts.

Along with the new football contracts, Alabama basketball assistant coach Preston Murphy was also given an extension that will keep him in Tuscaloosa through Dec. 31, 2028. Murphy will make $675,000 per year in his new deal. Murphy has been instrumental in Alabama’s presence on the recruiting trail, helping grow the Tide’s profile under coach Nate Oats.

Here is the full list of new coach contracts approved by the committee:

Chris Kapilovic — Offensive line coach: 2 years, $925,000 per year ending Feb. 28. 2027

Maurice Linguist – Defensive backs coach: 2 years, $975,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

Chuck Morrell — Linebackers coach: 2 years, $600,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

Jay Nunez — Special teams coordinator: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Nunez will make $375,000 in the first year and $400,000 in the second year

Freddie Roach — Defensive line coach: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Roach will make $1.2 million in the first year and $1.3 million in the second year.

Christian Robinson — Linebackers coach: 2 years, $700,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

JaMarcus Shephard — Wide receivers coach: 2 years, $1.1 million per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

Bob Welton — Director of Player Personell: 2 years, $295,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

Jeff Allen — Strength coach: 3 years, $525,000 per year ending Feb. 29, 2028

David Ballou — Director of sports performance: 2 years, $950,000 per year ending Dec. 31, 2027

Bryan Ellis — Tight ends coach: 2 years, $600,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027

Robert Gillespie — Running backs coach: 2 years, $850,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027.

Jason Jones — Defensive backs coach: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Jones will make $250,000 in the first year and $450,000 in the second year.

Ryan Grubb — Offensive coordinator: 2 years, $1 million per year ending Feb. 28, 2027.

Courtney Morgan — General Manager: 2-year contract ending Dec. 31, 2027. Morgan will make $825,000 in the first year and $875,000 in the second year.

Preston Murphy — Assistant basketball coach: 2 years, $675,000 per year ending April 30, 2027.

Rashinda Reed — volleyball coach: 3 years, $250,000 per year ending Dec. 31, 2028.

Give BYU credit, as they were picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 12 Conference this past season. Instead, the Cougars put together a strong run that ended Thursday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

And honestly, on most other nights, they probably would have been moving on. But nobody was beating Alabama.

The Crimson Tide sank a tournament-record 25 three-pointers in posting a 113-88 victory over BYU. Alabama was 25 of 51 from deep and shot 53 percent overall, making just 10 field goals from inside the 3-point line.

Mark Sears sank 10 of those triples, scoring 34 points with eight assists. He also broke the single-game record for made 3-pointers. Chris Youngblood scored 19 and Grant Nelson had 10 rebounds.

For BYU, Richie Saunders finished with 25 points, six rebounds, four steals and two assists, with Egor Demin adding 15 points and seven assists.

Two more Big 12 teams will be in action with Arizona taking on Duke and Texas Tech playing Arkansas.

Sweet 16 Round

Thursday’s results

Friday’s Games