WASHINGTON — Dan Hurley pounded the rim before he clipped the last bit of net, put a piece of string in his mouth and flashed eight fingers to the crowd for the number of Final Four appearances UConn can now claim.

Regardless of whether this Final Four results in a national title the way six of the previous seven have, the game that got the Huskies there will go down as among the program’s greatest.

Call it Mullins’ miracle.

Braylon Mullins swished a 3-pointer from near half court with 0.4 seconds left and second-seeded UConn erased a 19-point deficit and stunned top-seeded Duke 73-72 Sunday to reach the Final Four for the third time in four years.

“You never get to practice those type of shots,” said Mullins, the 2025 Indiana Mr. Basketball who will now play a Final Four in Indianapolis. “And I think those shots just come around. … Now, just being cemented in history is just a crazy, crazy feeling.”

OH MY GOODNESS 😱

UCONN LEADSSSS UNBELIEVABLE #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/IPX2JWiw0b

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 29, 2026

The improbable comeback ran the Huskies’ streak of NCAA Tournament victories against Duke to three in a row. The first in 1999 gave UConn its first title against a Blue Devils team led by Elton Brand that seemed unbeatable. The next in 2004 came in the Final Four on the way to another championship.

This one came a week earlier in March Madness, but was maybe the most incredible of all. Certainly payback for Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater that beat UConn in the 1990 Elite Eight.

“This is why sports is the only thing people are watching on live TV,” Hurley said.

Duke (35-3) controlled the first 30 minutes and looked as if it could cruise into the Final Four for a second straight year behind a freshman national player of the year favorite: Cameron Boozer scored 27 points to lead the Blue Devils.

“We gave a lot, but I think as a whole we could have gave a lot more in the second half,” Boozer said. “We came out a little flat and gave them a little bit of life.”

The Blue Devils had a two-point lead with 10 seconds left and the ball after Silas Demary Jr. made one of two from the line for UConn (33-5). All the Blue Devils needed to do was inbound the ball and maybe knock down a couple of free throws.

They threw too many passes, and the ball ended up in Mullins’ hands with the clock winding down. Nothing left to do but shoot — and the freshman made his only 3 of the game to give the Huskies their first lead since 2-0.

“You have to applaud the fight just to be in that game, to give yourself a chance,” Hurley said.

Hurley’s teams won national championships in 2023 and ’24 , blowing through the competition and turning those Final Fours into coronations.

“My first two years, really steamrolling through the tournament, it kind of felt like March Madness was easy,” said Alex Karaban, the only player remaining from both title teams. “Now it’s like, it gives you a whole new perspective.”

This UConn team came into the NCAA Tournament off a blowout loss to St. John’s in the Big East final. The tournament resume said UConn was well-deserving of a No. 2 seed, but the Huskies seemed a notch or two below the very best teams in the country — including Duke, the top overall seed.

“I’m not sure a lot of people had us getting out of this region,” Hurley said. “Especially because of the performance in the Big East championship, blowing it at Marquette late in the year, blowing the regular-season (championship). But we made up for it today, and obviously, in this tournament, we have a lot of confidence.”

Duke’s desperation inbounds heave the length of the court was batted away with two hands by Karaban, the winningest player in the history of UConn men’s basketball. Victory No. 125 for Karaban was somehow complete.

The Huskies mobbed their captain and center court, and for the second straight season, Duke’s season ended with a painful late-game collapse.

Last year it was in the Final Four to Houston, denying Cooper Flagg a chance to play for a national title in his only college season. This time it was one step earlier, and likely the end of Cameron Boozer’s brief but spectacular college career, sooner than coach Jon Scheyer and Duke had envisioned.

“I could not be more disappointed and feeling for our guys,” Scheyer said. “I don’t have the words. I don’t have the words.”

Duke-UConn was the headliner regional final of the weekend, matching programs with 11 national titles between them. Michigan blew out Tennessee earlier in the day in the Midwest Region, and it seemed Duke was on track for similar domination.

Instead, Blue Devils-Huskies became the game of this NCAA Tournament, with what is likely to be the shiniest moment of this March no matter how things play out next weekend in Indianapolis.

Oh yeah, about that. UConn will play Illinois next Saturday in the national semifinals, carrying the banner for the Big East against the Big Ten. The Huskies beat the Illini in November at Madison Square Garden in New York.

While Mullins is now a legend, the comeback never would have happened without Tarris Reed Jr. UConn’s center finished with 26 points and nine rebounds and was the only reason the Huskies ever had a chance, carrying a team that couldn’t buy a 3-pointer (one for their first 18) — until they needed them the most (four of their last five).

Karaban made his first 3 of the game for UConn with 50 seconds left to cut a lead that was 11 with just under 13 minutes left in regulation down to 70-69.

Cameron Boozer responded in the paint on the other end to push it to three again, and Duke fouled Demary on the floor with 10 seconds left to send him to the line. He made one.

Duke just needed to execute one more time. Didn’t happen. Dame Sarr found Cayden Boozer inside half court, a perfect guy to take a foul, but Cameron’s twin tried one more pass that was deflected by Demary. Mullins got the ball and passed quickly to Karaban, who had the 6-foot-9 Boozer in his face. Karban passed back to Mullins, and he let it go from about 35 feet.

“You could tell just the trajectory of ball to basket,” Hurley said.

Nothing but net.

“That game was a reflection on the season. It’s been a season where we’ve been dealt with injuries to key players at critical points of the year that we’ve had to overcome, and we’ve had to show a lot of fortitude and resilience and just kind of clawed our way through the season,” Hurley said. “Thought the game was a microcosm of that. We fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made.

“And one of the most brilliant shooters you’ll ever see shoot a basketball made an incredible, legendary March shot.