{"id":503778,"date":"2026-03-30T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503778\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:10:08","slug":"uconns-thrilling-win-over-duke-proved-that-blue-blood-clashes-are-alive-and-well-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503778\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn\u2019s thrilling win over Duke proved that blue-blood clashes are alive and well | NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn\u2019s shock win over No 1 seed Duke on Sunday night to advance to the Final Four connected two disparate eras of college basketball. Not only did the game produce one of the greatest endings in NCAA Tournament history<\/a>, it was also a reminder of college basketball\u2019s enduring appeal despite the huge changes that have transformed the sport over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Freshman Braylon Mullins\u2019s three-point heave<\/a> from well beyond the arc \u2013 after he had moments earlier stolen the ball from Duke guard Cayden Boozer \u2013 sealed the 73-72 victory. It was a shot that will forever torment Duke fans: the Blue Devils had led by 19 points in the first-half, and No 1 seeds had been 134-0 when leading by 15 or more points in NCAA Tournament history. That mark now stands at 134-1.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made,\u201d said UConn coach Dan Hurley. \u201cAnd one of the most brilliant shooters you\u2019ll ever see shoot a basketball made an incredible, legendary March shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final 10 seconds of Sunday night\u2019s game<\/a> evoked some of the greatest endings in tournament history: Mullins and Silas Demary Jr\u2019s swarming of Cayden Boozer conjured memories of UCLA\u2019s stunning 2006 comeback<\/a> against Gonzaga while Alex Karaban\u2019s patient, disciplined pass to Mullins resembled Ryan Arcidiacono\u2019s scoop pass to Villanova teammate Kris Jenkins for the shot that won the 2016 national title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Duke, Sunday\u2019s loss felt impossible. Earlier that game Duke had forced UConn into some miserable shooting \u2013 the Huskies missed 17 of their first 18 three-point attempts. After the game, Duke coach Jon Scheyer admitted he was struggling to process his disbelief, but implored reporters to look beyond the botched final play that led to Mullins\u2019 game-winning shot. Cayden Boozer struggled to discuss the play at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cost our team our season,\u201d he told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s thriller capped a weekend in Washington DC that served as an exhilarating throwback for college basketball traditionalists skeptical of a new world with unlimited transfers, expensive Name, Image and Likeness deals<\/a> and high-volume three-point shooting. Duke and UConn, two of the sport\u2019s traditional powers, had knocked out two of the game\u2019s greatest coaches (Michigan State\u2019s Tom Izzo and St John\u2019s Rick Pitino) on their way to the Elite Eight in an era in which some speculate that the historic blue bloods are losing their edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have as good a chance to win at a non-blue blood, maybe even a better chance, because you don\u2019t have the pressure and the expectations or the burden of the jersey or the logo,\u201d Hurley said earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Cayden Boozer takes in Sunday\u2019s loss. Photograph: Stephanie Scarbrough\/AP<\/p>\n

In 2023, Connecticut were the highest seed in a Final Four that featured three teams \u2013 San Diego State, Florida Atlantic and Miami \u2013 reaching the national semi-finals for the first time. There was some belief that this would become the new normal in college basketball: less heralded programs could exploit the talent gap by bidding up for older, stronger players who may be better equipped than teenage underclassmen to endure the March Madness gauntlet. Unlike football, which requires a big enough budget to satisfy up to 105 scholarship players, college basketball teams can only have 15 players on scholarship at a time. In 2023, the average age of San Diego State, Miami and Florida Atlantic\u2019s starting fives was around 22, and two of those teams featured three starters who were playing their first year at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t get by on your brand any more. Players dreaming of having played [for a certain school] one day, none of these kids care about that any more,\u201d Hurley said before his team\u2019s Sweet 16 win over Michigan State. \u201cNone of the people close to them care about it because the majority of the people that are advising the kids now are agents who are looking at it from a business perspective, or families that are not sentimental about any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Sunday\u2019s thriller proved recruiting and continuity still dictate success: Duke had the best collection of underclassmen in the country \u2013 four of them are expected to be selected in the first round of June\u2019s NBA draft \u2013 but the Blue Devils\u2019 inexperience was slowly exposed as UConn whittled a 19-point deficit into single digits. On the game\u2019s final play, the three Duke freshmen who touched the ball did not appear to want it for long, firing quick passes instead of trying to absorb a foul from UConn\u2019s high-pressure defense.<\/p>\n

Dominant play from two big men who don\u2019t prioritize perimeter shooting also provided nostalgia. Connecticut senior Tarris Reed Jr was named the game\u2019s Most Outstanding Player after finishing with 26 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two steals, a performance that would have invigorated fans yearning for the era of dominant post players like Patrick Ewing and Dwight Howard. Reed will probably fall to the second-round pick in this year\u2019s NBA draft, but he reminded fans why the three-point shot is not yet essential to succeeding in today\u2019s game (though it may be if you aren\u2019t close to 7ft tall). His perfect footwork and ball fakes sapped the strength of Duke big men Cameron Boozer and Patrick Ngongba II as he scored 20 of UConn\u2019s 36 points in the paint. Defensively, Reed balanced brute strength and physicality with well-timed challenges of close-range shots to stay out of foul trouble and limit Duke\u2019s interior scoring in the second half.<\/p>\n

Reed\u2019s style looks arcane compared to that of Cameron Boozer, who finished the game with 27 points, eight rebounds and a black eye. Boozer, the son of two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, is a probable top-five pick in this year\u2019s draft and was widely considered the best player in college basketball this season. He dominated the first-half of Sunday\u2019s game with interior strength, clever passing and dynamic defense..<\/p>\n

If the 2025 and 2026 tournaments offer any clue to the future, it\u2019s that stacking older veterans may get a team to the tournament\u2019s second weekend, but it\u2019s unlikely to work against programs that aggressively pursue top young talents and complement them with trusty veterans.<\/p>\n

And if those vets come from the portal, all the better: Connecticut redshirt senior Malachi Smith, a Dayton transfer, threaded a perfect slip pass to set up a Reed dunk that evoked one of the biggest responses from UConn fans. Demary, a Georgia transfer, hit two clutch threes late in the game, and helped force the turnover that set up Mullins\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n

UConn have proved that an old soul like Hurley can adapt to college sports\u2019 new era. That may be the ideal formula for any team with championship aspirations.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously that\u2019s an epic,\u201d Hurley said after the game. \u201cJust another chapter in the UConn-Duke NCAA Tournament<\/a> dramatics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UConn\u2019s shock win over No 1 seed Duke on Sunday night to advance to the Final Four connected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-503778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}