SAN ANTONIO – The disappointment of the epic collapse that ended Duke’s season 1 game and 2 wins short of its expected conclusion will kick in sooner than later.
But in the immediate aftermath of the Blue Devils’ 70-67 loss to Houston in Saturday’s second national semifinal, the vibe inside their locker room at AlamoDome was one of stunned silence.
Players stared blankly at the floor, some with towels draped over their heads, as they tried to process what had just happened.
How their dream of a national championship ended so abruptly.
And so cruelly.
Actually, the “how” is an easy one to explain.
Jon Scheyer’s team couldn’t make a shot when it needed one, couldn’t get the ball inbounds when it had to and couldn’t stop the Cougars with the game on the line in squandering a 6-point lead in the final 33 seconds.
It wouldn’t have mattered who Duke was playing, how good Houston’s defense was or how many shots LJ Cryer made down the stretch had Duke done Duke down the stretch, the way it did for the first 30-plus minutes of the game. The problem is that the Blue Devils didn’t do what the Blue Devils usually do when it mattered most.
“I thought our guys followed the game plan, controlled the game,” Scheyer said. “We had the lead for 35 minutes, winning by 6 with a minute to go. They made plays. You got to give ’em a ton of credit. We didn’t make those plays.”
The “why” it all happened, at the worst possible time, isn’t nearly as discernable.
The most plausible reason for the most stunning result in the Blue Devils’ storied NCAA history is inexperience.
Not the kind of inexperience that comes with having a core of freshman players making their first – and most likely only – NCAA Tournament appearance. Or a still-young coach trying to emerge from the shadow of a larger-than-life mentor.
Although both probably factored into the equation.
For all that Wooden Award winner Cooper Flagg did to pull his team through, as he had on so many other occasions this season by contributing 27 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks, he left his potential game-tying jumper short off the front of the rim on Duke’s final possession.
HOUSTON STUNS DUKE!!!!!! The Cougars trailed by 6 points with 1:11 left. Unreal.Cooper Flagg missed a great look that would have won the game for the Blue Devils.pic.twitter.com/NHhuRIFPtm
— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) April 6, 2025Classmate Kon Knueppel disappeared offensively in the second half after scoring 12 points in the opening 20 minutes and 7-2 center Khaman Maluach didn’t pull down a single rebound in 21 minutes of court time.
In this case, the lack of experience that led to the Blue Devils’ demise is the kind that can only be gained under actual game pressure. That didn’t happen often enough for a team that led the nation in victory margin, winning its 35 games by an average of 21 points.
Of the 9 games Duke played that were decided by single-digit margins, 4 ended in losses. It could easily have been 5 had North Carolina’s Jae’Lyn Withers not committed a lane violation in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
While Scheyer threw himself under the bus for those failures by saying that he didn’t do a good enough job of preparing his team for late-game situations in practice, the root cause of Saturday’s loss goes deeper than that.
He showed his own inexperience by allowing his team to take its foot off the accelerator in much the same way another young Duke coach – some guy named Krzyzewski – did against Louisville in 1986 in his first Final Four appearance.
In this case, the downward spiral that led to the Blue Devils’ demise was initiated with just over 8 minutes remaining.
Leading 49-45 and seemingly ready to cruise into Monday’s national championship game against Florida with a head of steam, Duke’s momentum was abruptly halted by a series of events that began with a 3-point basket by Houston’s LJ Cryer.
On the play, reserve forward Mason Gillis was called for a dead-ball technical foul for clocking the Cougars’ Joseph Tugler across the face while attempting to box him out. Cryer, a Final Four veteran with Baylor in 2021, made 1 of the 2 free throws that were awarded, then a mid-range jumper on the ensuing possession.
24-year-old Mason Gillis with the MMA spinning blind elbow on Joseph Tugler. #FinalFour ? @sluggahjells pic.twitter.com/AR1HfVTY1V
— The Whole Delivery (@TWDTV1) April 6, 2025And just like that, the Blue Devils’ comfortable 14-point lead was down to 8.
Game on.
“It’s a lot easier to finish the game when you have a 20-(point lead),” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “It’s a lot harder when you’ve got to finish it up 3 or up 4 or even up 6.”
That was obvious as the Blue Devils’ collars got visibly tighter with every possession from that point on.
And not just on offense.
While they did miss 9 of their final 10 field-goal attempts while managing only 9 points over the final 10.5 minutes, the loss can be pinned almost as much on defensive lapses that allowed the Cougars to outscore them 25-8 down the stretch, including a decisive 9-0 run in the final 33 seconds to end what Scheyer called “a special ride” in a heartbreaking way.
That heartbreak and the drama that brought it about is what makes the NCAA Tournament so great. And why so many people, even those who don’t follow college basketball at any other time of the year, get so caught up in the Madness of March.
Even when you think you’ve cracked the code on your bracket and have it all figured out something always seems to pop up and make you say: I can’t believe what I just saw. How the heck did that happen?
Just as Duke was left to do in a stunned losing locker room Saturday night.
From dominance to despair: Duke is left to wonder what happened after its epic Final Four collapse Saturday Down South.
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