a 73-72 meltdown to No. 2 UConn in Sunday\u2019s Elite Eight<\/a> \u2014 his turnover with six seconds left will endure forever as one of the all-time bungles in the history of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\nAs the final, fatal mistake in another epic Blue Devils collapse.<\/p>\n
With Duke leading 72-70 with six seconds left, all the 6-foot-4 freshman needed to do was hold the ball and get fouled. Yet, he didn\u2019t. Instead, he elevated and went for the home run pass, a heave over two UConn defenders at midcourt. But UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. tipped it, the Huskies recovered \u2014 and then the nightmare hit full-throttle.<\/p>\n
Alex Karaban \u2014 already a two-time national champion \u2014 throwing a pass back to UConn freshman Braylon Mullins.<\/p>\n
Mullins, lining up a prayer from the penultimate \u201cS\u201d in the midcourt MARCH MADNESS logo.<\/p>\n
A long parabola, time seemingly stopped still \u2014 and then the swish of the ball through the net, inaudible as thousands of UConn fans roared to life inside Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to secure it, right? We got it,\u201d Duke coach Jon Scheyer said postgame. \u201cThey had a foul. I was ready for a timeout. We\u2019ve just got to hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Duke couldn\u2019t. And instead, Sunday night became the latest heartbreaking season-ender under Scheyer:<\/p>\n
NC State in the Elite Eight in 2024.<\/p>\n
Houston, ending Cooper Flagg\u2019s one college season last April in the Final Four.<\/p>\n
And now, UConn, after leading by as many as 19.<\/p>\n
Three unthinkable, unimaginable collapses, each more excruciating than the last.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the words,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly sorry for these guys that they\u2019ve got to go through this. This is on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to process it any other way. With the collapse, Duke became the first No. 1 seed in March Madness history to lose after leading by 15-plus at the half; until now, teams were 134-0 in such scenarios. Furthermore, UConn\u2019s comeback is the second largest in Elite Eight history, only a point behind Louisville\u2019s 20-point rally in 2005.<\/p>\n
For Scheyer, it\u2019s another unthinkable defeat snatched from victory, and one that will follow him for the remainder of his career.<\/p>\n
No matter that Duke won 70 games over the last two seasons, more than any previous two-season stretch in the program\u2019s rich history. No matter that it has had consecutive generational freshman superstars, in Flagg and Cameron Boozer, both of whom deservedly won National Player of the Year. No matter that Duke lost only three games this season \u2014 by 5 combined points, somehow \u2014 and tied the all-time record for regular-season wins over ranked foes, with 11.<\/p>\n
All that matters is what was \u2014 and then quickly, stunningly, wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
It is easy, of course, to start at the end. With Duke\u2019s final possession, one which will be Zapruder-ed for years and years to come:<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t Scheyer have Isaiah Evans \u2014 Duke\u2019s best free-throw shooter this season \u2014 back as an inbounds option?<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t Cayden Boozer just hold the ball?<\/p>\n
Why did Scheyer have his team keep passing, rather than attempt game-clinching free throws?<\/p>\n
But in reality, the Blue Devils\u2019 crumble began well before that fateful final possession. Remember: The first 15 minutes were practically a parade, the return of \u201cDeath Star Duke,\u201d which swept the ACC regular-season and tournament championships while surpassing last season\u2019s all-time squad in the advanced computer metrics. After lingering injuries to Patrick Ngongba and Caleb Foster, it appeared that Scheyer\u2019s team had weathered the storm and was 20 minutes from strutting to Indianapolis with all the momentum in the world.<\/p>\n
After taking a 19-point lead about four minutes before halftime, though, the wheels started to wobble. UConn cut it to 15 at the break, and Ngongba\u2019s ill-advised 3 on the team\u2019s final possession was proof that the Huskies\u2019 backbone was still intact.<\/p>\n
That became even more palpable after intermission, as the physicality switch flipped on the UConn sideline. Dan Hurley\u2019s team suddenly punched first and second, drawing fouls at a prolific rate and forcing Scheyer to toggle his frontcourt duo of Ngongba and Maliq Brown. In many ways, it was a wise scouting move on Hurley and his staff\u2019s part, using the same strategy that Texas Tech and North Carolina had employed earlier this season to come back from down double digits against Duke. Nobody was more key to those efforts than UConn center Tarris Reed Jr., the eventual Most Outstanding Player of the East Region, who single-handedly carried the Huskies in the first half en route to a team-best 26 points and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out a little flat and gave them a little bit of life,\u201d said Cameron Boozer, after likely the final game of his storied one-year college season. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing a team as good as UConn, that\u2019s all they really need.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then came the 3s, UConn\u2019s swing skill this entire season. The Huskies had made at least five of them in every NCAA Tournament game but started 1-for-18 from deep Sunday, struggling to get quality looks over Duke\u2019s length.<\/p>\n
Until Demary drained consecutive corner 3s, that is \u2014 one from each side of the court \u2014 to shrink Duke\u2019s cushion down to a mere 7 points, with just over six minutes to play.<\/p>\n
By that point, something was definitely in the air.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s what makes the final result so unbelievable, even in the aftermath: Because Duke still had every opportunity to win \u2014 to make its second straight Final Four, the first time the program would\u2019ve done so since Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s heyday in the early 1990s. With 1:20 left, after Solo Ball hit 1 of 2 free throws, the Blue Devils still led by 4, with the ball, with all their goals intact.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s at that point, though, that the ultimate meltdown began.<\/p>\n
A full-on unraveling.<\/p>\n
Cameron Boozer \u2014 who finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists, not to mention a gnarly black left eye after taking a forearm to the face \u2014 turned it over driving against Reed, one of his four giveaways Sunday. Then he got buried on a screen by Reed, which freed up Karaban for his only 3-point make of the night.<\/p>\n
It was Duke 70, UConn 69.<\/p>\n
Anyone\u2019s game, up for grabs, for whichever side was going to take it.<\/p>\n
Which, temporarily, looked like Duke after Boozer\u2019s spinning layup with 28.9 seconds left that made it a 3-point game. For all the drama, all the mistakes, all the anxiety swirling inside the arena, the Blue Devils were still in position to win.<\/p>\n
With 10 seconds left, Boozer fouled Demary, who made one of two shots.<\/p>\n
One more inbounds pass \u2014 just like against Houston last season<\/a> \u2014 and Duke could all but run out the clock.<\/p>\nOr, do that.<\/p>\n
Implode, cementing the sixth-worst blown lead in NCAA Tournament history. (Tied for sixth-worst, technically, with rival UNC, in the first round earlier this month.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish,\u201d freshman Nik Khamenia said, \u201cwe would have done a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Duke didn\u2019t. It\u2019s the most painful part of the college basketball postseason: There are no do-overs.<\/p>\n
The best team, with the best player, does not always win. A team that led for 19 minutes and 59.6 seconds in the second half does not always win.<\/p>\n
A team that had gone 8-2 in two-possession games this season \u2014 seemingly overcoming its recent history of collapses \u2014 can revert to its worst habits, at the worst possible time, and see its season end in a snap.<\/p>\n
In silence, really. In a postgame locker room with pizzas being delivered to one corner and reporters shuffling quietly from locker to locker. In that unimaginable limbo, when reality hasn\u2019t quite sunk in yet.<\/p>\n
The last moments before a team realizes it\u2019s all over.<\/p>\n
That realization seemed to hit Cayden Boozer 45 minutes after the worst moment of his young career. He clenched his hands on a towel draped across his knees, tapping his feet, before answering the final question that busted open the dam:<\/p>\n
How are you feeling right now?<\/p>\n
Until then, he\u2019d held it together.<\/p>\n
Until then.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 For a moment, he almost held it together. Almost. But then the bloodshot eyes started to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7091,2663,99],"class_list":["post-553745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}