Duke's absence from the NCAA men's basketball tournament is glaring.
Duke's women have been gone from the picture for months. The Blue Devils dropped to 3-1 with a loss to Louisville on Dec. 9. And that was it.
The program hit pause on Dec. 16 after two positive COVID-19 tests. On Christmas, it called it a wrap. Duke became the first Power Five basketball program on the men's or women's side to outright cancel its season because of the pandemic.
Duke the exception
In a season when sports leagues and teams largely opted into the risks associated with playing during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the nation's most prominent programs marked a notable exception.