We’ve seen this with Duke at least once or twice before.
Actually, more than once or twice.
Just last season, the Dookies finished ranked #1 in KenPom, had the #1 pick in the draft, Cooper Flagg, blew a big lead in a Final Four loss to Houston.
The 2024 team wasn’t quite as good – KenPom had them seventh overall at the end of the season.
Doesn’t explain them losing to an NC State team that had been on the verge of getting its coach fired two weeks earlier in the Elite Eight.
The 2022 group had another #1 overall pick, Paolo Banchero, and lost to rival UNC in Coach K’s final game in Cameron and his final game ever.
Not a Carolina fan here, but that game-clinching three in the final minute in the Final Four game, I marked out on that one more than I did the Braxton Key dunk that sealed the natty for Virginia in 2019.
Incidentally, that’s still the last ACC natty.
Which Virginia won despite losing to a Duke team that had another future #1 pick, in the oversized form of Zion Williamson, on the most overhyped team ever assembled.
Duke, since its last national title in 2015, has had the likes of Williamson, Banchero, Flagg, Brandon Ingram, Jayson Tatum.
And then this year’s #1 pick, Cameron Boozer, who, to my eye, is the most polished of all of the Duke one-and-dones, in his year at the college level, pretending to be a student-athlete – a point forward shooting 40 percent from three, 61 percent in the paint, 10 boards a game.
The latest Duke team to choke had a 19-point first-half lead on UConn, a double-digit lead as late as 6:07 to go, a four-point lead in the final minute, a three-point lead with 10 seconds left, a two-point lead and the ball, and just needing to dribble out the clock.
WTF.
Again?
“I could not be more disappointed and feeling for our guys, at the same time of just trying to process what happened,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after the improbable 73-72 loss.
“I don’t have the words. I don’t have the words.”
None of us have the words – words that don’t involve, you gagged, dude.
Scheyer is 124-25 in four seasons as Coach K’s successor, has all the resources in the world, and nothing to show for it.
It’s just bad luck, sure.
All Duke (35-3) needed to do to close this one out was have Cayden Boozer, the little brother of the Good Boozer, the one who is going to be the #1 pick, dribble the ball and get fouled.
Instead, he pulled a Kihei Clark – poor Kihei.
Clark could have just held the ball on the sideline to close out what would have been a first-round NCAA Tournament win over Furman in 2023, but instead, panicked, tried to get the ball upcourt, had the pass intercepted, and it led to a 30-foot three that knocked Virginia out.
That’s what the Other Boozer did here.
The pass from the guy of the two who topped out at 6’4” ended up in the hands of Silas Demery, who got the ball to Alex Karaban, who in turn shoveled the ball to Braylon Mullins.
Mullins, to that point in the game: 3-of-9 FG, 0-of-4 3FG, seven points.
Of course, his 35-footer swished through the net with 0.4 on the clock.
“I’m hurting right now. We’re all hurting,” the #1 pick Boozer said after the game.
Kid had 27 points, eight rebounds, four assists.
Little brother, who’s destined for a two-way NBA/G League deal, alongside another nepo baby, Bronny James, had 15 points and six assists.
It was the last of the three turnovers that ended another Duke season early.
“We just have to secure it, right? We got it. They had a foul. I was ready for a timeout. We’ve just got to hold on,” Scheyer said.
“It’s easy to look at that play. I look at every play that happened, especially in that second half, this is not about one play. It’s about every play that put us in that position, and that’s what you don’t want to do, where one play something could happen.
“For me, look, it’s going to be tough, but it’s not going to be on one play,” Scheyer said.
No, it’s going to be on, you can’t handle the moment.
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Chris Graham
