Duke has consistently landed the top talent in men’s college basketball over the last decade, yet somehow it hasn’t won a national championship during that time. The March Madness losses hang over the Blue Devils like a bad dream. There the 2018 Elite Eight loss to Kansas in overtime after Grayson Allen’s game-winner went in and out. There was a shocking 2019 Elite Eight loss to Michigan State after Zion Williamson had been the most dominant player in the sport all year. There was a Final Four loss to arch-rival North Carolina in Mike Krzyzewski’s last ever game. There was an unfathomable Final Four meltdown last year against Houston when Duke had the NBA’s two top rookies in Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel.
Duke had the best player in college basketball again this season just like they do most other years. Once again, its season ended in heartbreak in just about the most stunning way imaginable.
Braylon Mullins’ 35-foot three-point buzzer-beater lifted UConn over Duke in the Elite Eight on Sunday evening after the Blue Devils had been in front the entire game. Duke pissed away the lead with an onslaught of second half turnovers, and the final one committed by Cayden Boozer was the most indefensible of them all.
Duke was up two points with the ball with 10 seconds left. All it had to do was hold onto the ball, force UConn to foul, and make their free throws. Instead, the smaller Boozer twin tried to advance the ball, which led to a tipped pass, a turnover, and a game-winning three for UConn. While Boozer is catching most of the blame this morning, this video of head coach Jon Scheyer yelling at his team to advance the ball also needs to be considered.
Scheyer was correct in saying that one play did not lose down the game. The Blue Devils were up 10 points with just over six minutes left. They had 13 turnovers on the night compared to just five for UConn. They allowed 13 offensive rebounds to the Huskies while only grabbing 10 themselves.
Boozer took the blame for the loss in a devastating locker room interview. He said he really felt bad for letting down his twin brother Cameron, who had been so phenomenal in leading the Blue Devils to such a great year.
Cayden Boozer was actually really good for the majority of the game against UConn. He made a poor decision in a big moment, and it will unfortunately define his basketball career until he does something else that makes us forget it.
Duke had a great season. It ends at 35-3 with those three loses coming by a combined five points. Take it back to last Feb. and Duke only has four losses total, and it held a double-digit lead in the second half in every game.
I don’t feel comfortable pinning this loss on Boozer even if he made a bad play. Scheyer deserves more of the blame for blowing a 13-point second half lead to Houston with a comically stacked team last year, and then fumbling the Final Four berth this season. Should Scheyer be on the hot seat? I won’t go that far. He’s done an awesome job in taking over for Coach K, and his overall record proves it. Unfortunately, every season is national championship or bust at Duke, and so far it’s gone bust come March.
The first Final Four I ever covered was the legendary 2015 edition that saw Duke win it all with a team led by four freshmen stars. The Blue Devils have had an amazing freshmen class almost every year since then that reads like a who’s who of NBA lottery picks: Brandon Ingram, Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard, Mavin Bagley III, Wendell Carter Jr., Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, Paolo Banchero, Mark Williams, Dereck Lively II, Flagg, Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach. Cameron Boozer is next in line, and he was as good as any of them at Duke. It didn’t matter.
The main reason Duke continues to fall short of a national championship is because it’s really hard to win it all in March Madness. It’s a single-elimination tournament where every mistake is magnified. Duke wasn’t the best team in 2015 either the last time they cut down the nets on championship Monday: that would be a Kentucky team that started 38-0 before losing to Frank Kaminsky’s Wisconsin squad in the Final Four. Kentucky hasn’t won it all since 2012. UCLA’s 1995 national championship is the program’s only one since 1975. So much about the NCAA tournament gets determined by a lucky bounce of the ball. Lately, those bounces haven’t gone Duke’s way when it matters most.
Scheyer is a very good coach, but he’s the one who this should and will stick with. His reaction when Mullins pull-up for three is an all-timer.
I’ll remind you that Jay Wright was once considered a tournament choker too until he won two national championships at Villanova. The same was even said about Coach K after four Final Four exits in five years before he finally had a breakthrough with the 1991 team.
Scheyer is younger than me. He could be Duke’s head coach for the next 25 years and help them build an elite team every season. If that happens, he’s going to have his own breakthrough eventually. He’s also going to have to deal with a lot of doubt until that happens. This is about to be the most important offseason of his life, and not just because he’s blown it with Flagg and Boozer in consecutive years. Duke has another star-studded recruiting class next year, but the incoming freshmen group nationally is much weaker than this year’s class. Duke won’t have the best player on the floor in every game like it did the last two years. I really think Duke needs to find its star player in the transfer portal for next season.
Scheyer will probably live down this loss eventually. He’s just going to feel a lot of anguish until it happens.
