Alabama will play Duke in the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament East Regional Final — also known as the Elite Eight — on Saturday night in Newark, N.J.

It will be the Crimson Tide’s first men’s basketball meeting with the Blue Devils in 11 years, and just their 10th showdown all-time. But how many times has Alabama beaten Duke in their previous nine head-to-head matchups?

It’s happened only once, and it was 95 years ago. So chances are, you don’t remember it.

Here’s a quick recap of each of the nine meetings between Alabama and Duke (listed in chronological order):

Duke 38, Alabama 32

(1929 SoCon tournament, Atlanta)

Prior to the formation of the SEC in 1933 (and later the ACC), Alabama and Duke were both members of the Southern Conference. The league held its annual tournament at the Atlanta Auditorium and the Blue Devils beat the Crimson Tide in a first-round game on the night of March 2, 1929. Game details are sketchy, but by several accounts Billy Werber — who later went on to play 13 years as a third baseman in Major League Baseball — was the star for Duke.

Alabama 31, Duke 24

(1930 SoCo tournament, Atlanta)

Hank Crisp’s Alabama team finished off a perfect 20-0 season by beating Duke and its All-American Werber at the Atlanta Auditorium. The Crimson Tide (or Crimsons, as they were often known in those days) had their own star player in Lindy Hood, a 6-foot-5 Indiana native who was Alabama’s first basketball All-American. Earl Smith scored nine points to lead the way for the Crimsons, while Werber scored 10 for the Blue Devils.

Duke 89, Alabama 78

(1956 Birmingham Classic)

As part of a four-team field at Birmingham Municipal Auditorium (now Boutwell Auditorium) that also included West Virginia and Mississippi Southern (now Southern Miss), Duke held off Alabama behind 24 points from Bob Vernon. The Crimson Tide — a year removed from the famed “Rocket 8” team that won the SEC title behind All-America center Jerry Harper and coach Johnny Dee — got 20 points from guard Jack Kubiszyn, who later went on to play briefly in Major League Baseball and was a Tuscaloosa city councilman in the 1990s.

Duke 78, Alabama 60

(1959 Birmingham Classic)

It was Alabama, Duke, Navy and Auburn in the Birmingham Classic four years later, and again the Blue Devils scored a double-digit victory over the Crimson Tide. Duke big man Carroll Youngkin, who stood 6-foot-6, totaled 20 points to lead all scorers. Porter Powers had 17 for Alabama. Navy beat Auburn in the other first-round game, setting up a Crimson Tide vs. Tigers consolation game the following night. Auburn won that one, 59-52.

Duke 86, Alabama 80

(1967, Tuscaloosa)

The Blue Devils’ lone visit to Tuscaloosa came in the second game of coach Hayden Riley’s final season as Alabama coach and in the final season in which the Crimson Tide played at Foster Auditorium. Alabama trailed most of the night, but made it close late behind 22 points from Mike Nordholz. Duke’s Mike Lewis — a 6-foot-8 All-ACC forward — scored 25 points, while teammate Steve Vandenberg added 26. The Blue Devils went 22-6 that season, reaching the quarterfinals of the NIT. Alabama played its first game at Memorial (now Coleman) Coliseum vs. Samford about two months later on Feb. 1, 1968, on its way to a 10-16 finish.

Duke 86, Alabama 48

(1968, Durham, N.C.)

The return game in the home-and-home series opened the following season, and was the first as Crimson Tide head coach for C.M. Newton. It wasn’t particularly memorable for Alabama otherwise, as Duke ran away with the 38-point win and gave coach Vic Bubas his 200th career victory. Randy Denton had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Blue Devils, while Gary Elliott scored a game-high 21 points for the Crimson Tide. Alabama would finish that season at 4-20, the worst record in the program’s modern history.  

Duke 75, Alabama 70

(1981 NIT, Durham, N.C.)

Duke beat North Carolina A&T and Alabama edged St. John’s in the opening round of the NIT, setting up a second-round battle at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The season was the second as head coach for the Crimson Tide’s Wimp Sanderson and the first for the Blue Devils’ Mike Krzyzewski. Duke, playing without star forward Gene Banks — who broke his wrist in the first-round game — got 23 points from Kenny Dennard and 17 from Vince Taylor. Eddie Phillips scored 28 points for Alabama, which finished the season at 18-11.

The game was marred by an injury to Crimson Tide guard Mike Davis, who lay motionless on the court for several minutes after hitting his head hard on the floor early in the second half (he ended up being treated at a local hospital, but was no worse for the wear the following season). Alabama won the SEC tournament title and made the NCAA tournament in 1982, the first of six straight March Madness trips and 10 in the next 11 years under Sanderson.

Duke 76, Alabama 67

(1986, East Rutherford, N.J.)

What was perhaps Sanderson’s finest Crimson Tide team lost just five times all season, one of those in a mid-December neutral-site matchup in the Meadowlands Arena (which, by the way, is about 10 miles away from Newark’s Prudential Center, where Alabama and Duke will meet on Saturday night). The Crimson Tide led by seven at halftime and by 11 with 17:51 to play but could not hold on, particularly after standout forwards Michael Ansley and Derrick McKey both got in foul trouble. Ansley had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Crimson Tide, while McKey also scored 17, but Alabama turned the ball over 13 times and shot just 36% from the field in the second half.

Duke, which had lost four starters off its NCAA tournament runner-up team from the previous season, got 15 points and five steals from Tommy Amaker. Alabama went on to win the SEC regular-season and tournament titles that season, but lost to hot-shooting Providence — led by coach Rick Pitino and guard Billy Donovan — in the Sweet 16. Duke also made the Sweet 16, losing to eventual national champion Indiana.

Duke 74, Alabama 64

(2013 NIT Season Tip-Off, New York)

The most-recent meeting between the Crimson Tide and Blue Devils took place in the preseason NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden on the night before Thanksgiving 11 years ago. Coach Anthony Grant and Alabama could not overcome early foul trouble to star guard Trevor Releford, who finished with 11 points. Nick Jacobs led the Crimson Tide with 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots off the bench. Freshman Jabari Parker scored 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the sixth-ranked Duke, which lost to Arizona in the title game two days later.

The Blue Devils were a No. 3 seed for the NCAA tournament, but lost a first-round stunner to 14th-seeded Mercer. (They did win what would prove to be their fifth and final national championship under Krzyzewski a year later.) Alabama finished 13-19 for its first losing record in five seasons under Grant, who would be ousted at the end of the 2014-15 season in favor of Avery Johnson.

So there’s the less-than-memorable (at least for Crimson Tide fans) basketball history between Alabama and Duke. They’ll meet again on Saturday night in New Jersey.

Will the Crimson Tide finally snap its 95-year losing streak to the Blue Devils and reach the Final Four for the second straight year? Should be a fun one.