WASHINGTON – Freshman superstar leads Duke University to the ACC Championship.
The Blue Devils crossed the regular season goal line and earned the top seed in the East.
Everything is going according to plan as they gear up for the sixth national championship in program history and are poised to cruise to a double-digit lead against a seasoned opponent.
All of this may sound familiar.
All that momentum and Duke’s postseason hopes vanished last year in the biggest meltdown in Final Four history against Houston. On Sunday, the Blue Devils pulled off one of the most spectacular collapses in Elite Eight history, trailing by double digits in the second half, only to lose to No. 2 Connecticut 73-72 on guard Braylon Mullins’ 35-foot 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left.
“I couldn’t be more disappointed and thinking about the players, just trying to process what happened and at the same time, I don’t have any words. I have no words,” coach John Scheyer said. “I have no words other than how proud I am of them and how disappointed we are.”
When Duke faced the Cougars in the national semifinals last season, it held a 14-point lead with 8:17 left, led by nine with 2:15 left, led by seven with 1:26 left, and led by six at the 42-second mark.
But Houston outscored the Blue Devils 15-3 in the final two-plus minutes to win 70-67, handing what Scheier called at the time “the most heartbreaking loss.”
That loss comes with competition.
“We have a right to feel the way we feel,” guard Isaiah Evans said. “We worked really hard for this goal, and you’re so hurt right now that we fell so far short of the goal that we did. So what I’m saying is, whatever you’re feeling, you have the right to feel that way.”
Thanks to a blitz-like 14-0 run, Duke led 44-25 with 3:24 left and was on the verge of delivering an early knockout blow to the smaller and seemingly outmatched Huskies. Despite UW’s slight lead, the Blue Devils led 44-29 at halftime.
After Duke center Patrick Gomba II hit an alley-oop three minutes into the second half, the lead increased to 17 points, 50-33. The Huskies pulled within seven points with 9:43 remaining, but Duke ended up trailing by 11 points with eight minutes remaining. Again, the Huskies move within seven points with seven minutes left. On the next possession, a 3-pointer by Nikolas Khamenia put Duke back up to double digits.
Then the collapse happened. Evans made two free throws and Duke led 67-58 with five minutes left. University responded with a 7-0 run with a solo ball by the guard for an and-one, making it 67-64 with 3:42 left.
After a Cameron Boozer turnover with 65 seconds left, college forward Alex Karavan made a 3-pointer to make it 70-69. Cameron Boozer answered with a short jumper. With 10 seconds left, University guard Cyrus Demaree Jr. made one of two free throws to make it 72-70, setting up one of the most dramatic finishes in tournament history and one of the lowest scores in Duke University history.
Dame Sir received the ball under the Huskies’ basket and dove to Cameron Boozer, who was briefly trapped by two college defenders. Cameron Boozer bounced a pass to Sarr with 9.2 seconds left, and Sarr passed to point guard Kayden Boozer with 7.5 seconds left.
Kayden Boozer, who entered Sunday second on the team in free throw percentage with 79.7 percent, made all six of his attempts from the line against the Huskies. But instead of pushing the ball and waiting for the inevitable foul from two college defenders, he tried to pass forward to an open teammate.
“Kayden is one of our best free throw shooters, so I just passed him the ball,” Sarr said. “I feel like it doesn’t matter what happens after that. We’re a team, we go down together, we win together. We lost together today, and that’s it.”
The pass was tipped by Demarie and recovered by Mullins on Duke’s side of the half-court line. Mullins stepped forward to Karavan, received the ball right behind him, and then fired the ball around. -ess March Madness logo.
Swish. Ball game.
“We turned the ball over,” Kayden Boozer said. “I ruined my team’s season. That’s all I can do.”
There are various factors behind meltdowns. The Huskies picked up the bonus with six minutes left, slowing the pace of the game and disrupting Duke’s flow. The Blue Devils didn’t give up from the beginning of the second half. They quickly brought their belongings home.
A year after that memorable mistake, the Blue Devils failed to digest that painful lesson and made the same critical, game-changing mistake.
“I think we fought hard,” freshman forward Cameron Boozer said. He finished off a great season with a game-high 27 points, eight rebounds, and four assists the rest of the way.
“We gave a lot, but overall I think we could have given more in the second half. We came out a little flat and gave them a little bit of life. That’s really all they need when you play a good team like UW.”
This is clear. Duke University is a superstar program with superstar players and superstar coaches. But something is clearly wrong with the Blue Devils.
The reason for the back-to-back tournament failures lies in the program’s approach to roster management compared to the majority of teams that compete for national championships each year. While other teams rely heavily on transfers, Shire and Duke continue to rely on traditional high school recruiting to land one-and-done marquees like Cameron Boozer and Cooper Flagg.
“For me, it turns out that coaching freshmen and young players is everything I’ve ever known,” Scheyer said Saturday.
Thanks to the overwhelming performance of the freshmen, the Blue Devils have only lost seven games over the past two seasons. However, all of these losses can be attributed to youth and inexperience in some way. Duke has held double-digit leads in all three of its losses this season, but last year’s single-digit losses to Kentucky, Kansas, Clemson and Houston all came after late turnovers by Flagg and fellow freshman Con Knuppel.
And each season, Duke made it to the final stages of the tournament with a roster made up mostly of freshmen before teetering on veteran-led stability. No, UConn doesn’t have the star power of the Blue Devils. But the Huskies had been here before, and that was the difference.
From that perspective, Duke lost not because of a missed pass with seconds left, or a miraculous heave, or because the Blue Devils lacked the killer instinct to permanently beat the Huskies in the second half.
The root cause lies deeper. Duke is a young powerhouse that can overwhelm any opponent on its regular-season schedule, but that same lack of experience becomes its Achilles’ heel against an opponent that knows what it takes to win in March and April.
“There’s no one in this room, myself included, who doesn’t replicate everything that they can do and how they can help,” Scheyer said.
“Of course, that’s part of being in this seat. That’s part of being in this place. At the end of the day, we have to finish it. We reflect. We learn and we do it all. But yeah, of course.”
