Oral Roberts University men’s basketball team is back in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for the second time in three seasons. Two years after making an amazing run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed, the Golden Eagles earned a No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 seed Duke in the East Region, Thursday at 7:10 p.m. CDT at the Amway Center in Orlando. The game will air on CBS. It’s the highest seed for ORU since it was the No. 11 seed in the 1984 NCAA Tournament.

In 2021, ORU advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after defeating No. 2 seed Ohio State and No. 7 seed Florida, in rounds 1 and 2.

The Golden Eagles are 30-4 overall and went 18-0 in Summit League play this season. They secured The Summit League’s automatic bid to the 68-team field with a 92-58 victory over North Dakota State last week at the Summit League Tournament, in Sioux Falls, S.D.

ORU’s 17-game winning streak is currently the longest in the country and they will be one of three teams in the field having amassed 30 wins so far in 2022-23.

The Golden Eagles enter the NCAA Tournament ranked third nationally in scoring, averaging 84.2 ppg and their 18-0 run through the Summit League regular season saw them defeat conference opponents by the largest scoring margin of 16.9 ppg the League has seen in the last 20 years.

In six previous trips to the tournament, ORU has a record of 4-6 with its last win on March 21, 2021, against No. 7 Florida, 81-78. ORU is currently third in the nation in scoring offense (84.2), second in three pointers per game (10.8) and fifth in blocks per game (5.4). Max Abmas is sixth in the country in points per game (22.2), free-throw percentage (91.8) and three pointers per game (3.55).

The Golden Eagles made the Elite Eight in their inaugural appearance in the 1974 event.

This will be the first meeting between Oral Roberts and Duke in men’s basketball. The Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Saturday with a 59-49 win over No. 13 Virginia.

Duke, 26-8 overall, finished the regular season with a 14-6 mark against ACC foes, which was good for a three-way tie for third with Clemson and Pitt and a game behind co-champions Miami (Fla.) and Virginia. It was head coach John Scheyer’s first season after replacing Mike Krzysewski.

ORU had the nation’s fifth-toughest nonconference schedule that included the nation’s No. 1 team, Houston, on the road. Three of ORU’s non-league opponents won conference championships, either regular season or tournament championships, in their respective leagues (Houston, Saint Mary’s and Texas Southern).    Showcasing the difficulty of ORU’s schedule this season, four opponents it faced reached the NCAA tournament as Houston, Saint Mary’s, Texas Southern and Utah State all qualified.