WASHINGTON, DC — For the past few days, Sadiku Ibine Ayo has taken on a new identity at St. John’s practices. Inside Carnesecca Arena in Queens, the 6-foot-6 senior forward has been playing the role of Cameron Boozer, Duke’s sensational 6-foot-9 freshman forward.
“He’s been getting a lot of buckets,” St. John’s senior Dylan Darling, a 6-foot-1 guard, told Hoops HQ about Ayo. “He’s been feeling himself the past couple of days.”
“The ball’s in your hands all the time, trying to make plays, rebounding and trying to score, because he dominates the game,” Ayo said of the experience. “It’s been fun.”
Ayo and Bryce Hopkins, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, have been alternating shifts as Boozer ahead of Friday’s highly anticipated Sweet Sixteen East Regional matchup between No. 5 seed St. John’s and No. 1 seed Duke in Washington, D.C. The winner is set to face either No. 2 UConn or No. 3 Michigan State in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Containing Boozer, the USBWA National Player of the Year, is obviously a major priority for the Johnnies in what figures to be an absolute slugfest.
It was evident based on the overwhelming media crowd at Capital One Arena on Thursday that this is no ordinary Sweet Sixteen showdown — and not simply because it features Boozer (22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals) and another star big man in St. John’s senior Zuby Ejiofor (16.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.2 blocks).
The overall matchup has the feel and intrigue of a Final Four game. It is a meeting of two of the sport’s premier coaches: a veteran who has already been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in St. John’s Rick Pitino and a newcomer who appears well on his way to one day getting there in Duke’s Jon Scheyer.
Duke, the outright champion of the ACC, has lost just two games all season.
St. John’s, the outright champion of the Big East, has won 21 of its last 22.
Whichever team comes out on top has a great chance to carry that momentum to Indianapolis and potentially cut down the nets in early April.
As players and coaches made clear throughout Thursday’s media day, there is a lot of mutual respect between the programs.
“Quite frankly, in 52 years in this game, I’ve never seen a schedule like that in my coaching career,” Pitino said about Duke’s loaded 2025-26 slate. “It’s an amazing schedule that they played. A few blemishes, but only a couple of games. It’s quite a testament to the basketball team and their staff that they not only played that type of schedule, but to be victorious. We know we’re playing a great team.”
During nonconference play, the Blue Devils beat Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan State and Michigan, four of which are presently in the Sweet Sixteen. The Red Storm, on the other hand, stumbled a bit in the early part of the season before finding their rhythm and dominating the Big East. “They have good depth. They’re playing so well together,” Scheyer said about the Johnnies. “I think the best thing that they do is play with great confidence. They’re just relentless.”
Of course, the same could be said for Duke, which has continued to win games despite injury woes. The Blue Devils have been without 6-foot-5 junior guard Caleb Foster (fractured right foot) for the entire postseason. They were down two starters — Foster and 6-foot-11 sophomore center Patrick Ngongba (sore right foot) — in their first-round NCAA Tournament game against No. 16 Siena, narrowly avoiding a historic upset.
Ngongba, who logged 13 minutes off the bench in Duke’s Round of 32 win against No. 9 TCU, is expected to play against St. John’s. Surprisingly, Foster is “a game-time decision,” Scheyer said, and plans to “give it everything he has to go.”
St. John’s had a scare of its own amid the opening weekend of the tournament, squandering a 14-point lead in its Round of 32 clash with No. 4 Kansas at Viejas Arena in San Diego. The game was tied at 65-65 with less than four seconds remaining when Darling came to the rescue, driving to the basket and scoring a layup at the buzzer. Since then, Darling has been bombarded with hundreds and hundreds of text messages. “I’ve heard from a lot of people that I haven’t heard from in a long time,” Darling told Hoops HQ with a chuckle. “I heard from old teachers, principals, everybody.”
After taking a red eye to New York on Sunday, the Johnnies were back at their practice facility Monday for workouts and an initial film session on the Blue Devils. The two teams are similar in a lot of ways. They are tough-minded, defensive powerhouses who seek to control the paint, feeding off their centerpieces in Boozer and Ejiofor. Duke leads the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency, while St. John’s ranks eighth. The Red Storm have been able to fluster opposing guards with their fullcourt press, so Foster’s return would be crucial. In his absence, 6-foot-4 freshman guard Cayden Boozer, Cameron’s brother, has stepped up tremendously, averaging 13.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists since joining the starting lineup.
Both sides pointed to limiting turnovers and rebounding as the biggest keys to the game.
“We have to win the backboard,” St. John’s associate head coach Steve Masiello stressed to Hoops HQ. “Their offensive rebounding rates are alarmingly good, and when they get it, they’re throwing it out for threes. They’re not beating you with twos, so it’s a numbers game at that point. So really controlling the backboard and taking care of the ball. Our formula has been more possessions, more field goal attempts. We have to make sure we do that. We can’t play a possession game with them.”
Pitino also emphasized the importance of winning the three-point battle. Hopkins buried 6 of 9 attempts from behind the arc in St. John’s victory over Kansas, but the rest of the team was 5 of 26. Duke has several capable outside shooters, led by 6-foot-6 sophomore wing Isaiah Evans (15.2 points per game).
The Johnnies will throw multiple looks and bodies at Cameron Boozer, including Hopkins and 6-foot-8 senior forward Dillon Mitchell. Their aim is to make him read and react quickly, forcing him into tough decisions. When he has time and freedom to survey the floor — even when facing double teams — he has picked apart defenses with his passing. To help combat Duke’s size and muscle, expect 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Ruben Prey to play a critical role off the bench.
Asked by Hoops HQ what type of game he’s expecting, Boozer replied, “A very physical one.”
That was the major takeaway from Thursday’s media circus. There were a lot of pleasantries and compliments tossed around by members of both teams, but Friday, it will be war.
“It’s going to come down to who wants it more,” Darling said. “We’re not ready to be done playing yet.”
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