John Fanta
Badalière and journalist of university basketball
Everything pointed out the coronation of Jon Scheyer and Cooper Flagg filling their inheritance. When Duke held the high-level attack of the Alabama aimless for five minutes and made a 13-0 race in the New Jersey to win a ticket for the Final Four, the Blue Devils seemed quite the part of the best team in the country.
And for 32 minutes on Saturday evening inside the Alamodom, nothing could have suggested that Duke was going to lose the national semi-final in Houston. Flagg was the best floor player, going for 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two interceptions.
The Blue Devils increased by 14 years, pulling around 40% in the territory of 3 points with at least half of the crowd in their favor, three choices of the NBA recovery lottery and a defense that played as well as any team from America.
How did Duke lose this match?
This is a question that each Duke fan must ask right now. But Houston’s coach Kelvin Sampson said it best on Saturday evening:
“Cooper Flagg was not going to beat us alone,” said Sampson about the first year of Duke. “I had the impression that if we could simply hang on, even when we were down 14 years, these guys will tell you what I was talking about in the group: hang on, hang on to it.”
Only one university basketball team could have won in January when they had lost six years with nine seconds to play against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. This same team was the only one to have had a blow – 2% according to advanced statistics with live ratings live at +8000 with nine minutes at the clock – To achieve what we all saw on Saturday evening: the Houston Cougars.
The best part of Houston’s improbable return victory against Mighty Duke? It was a full effort of the team, whether Emanuel Sharp buried a triple to reduce the advance to three, or that LJ Cryer scoring 26 points, or I Wan Roberts slaughter two clutch throws after having pulled only 63% of the line this season.
This Houston team deserves all the credit for the victory. There is a reason why Sampson is 160-23 years old in his last 18 games as a head coach and why cougars can win their first national championship in school history on Monday evening.
But we could not watch the fascinating game Final Four on Saturday evening between the cougars and the Blue Devils and not to think that it was one of the collapses of all time in the history of the NCAA tournament. Yes, Duke is a team that relies strongly on a trio of first -year students, but Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach have exceeded their years of maturity. A team with so much talent, to reach 14 with eight minutes to play, then increasing with 1:26 on the left, and to lose it at the end, feels almost impossible.
This defeat will be forever with Scheyer. Will this define him? No.
Scheyer has become one of the best sports coaches, and its way to redemption will be a leading title until it exercises demons. But that is now part of his trip.
Suggesting Duke’s collapse on Saturday evening was a primary result of its kind would be short -sighted, but it was among the most shocking finishes in the history of the NCAA tournament.
Jay Wright treated this. There was a time when people from Villanova wanted him to dismissed. He is now considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of sport. Tony Bennett was examined endlessly in 2018 when his Virginia team lost against the UMBC. A year later, he led the riders to a national championship. People interviewed Matt Painter Endless, and last year, he led the boilermakers to the match for the national title. Dan Hurley lost against Teddy Allen and the state of the New Mexico in 2022, then, the next two years, the Huskies absolutely dominated sport.
There have been countless heartbreaking losses in university basketball. The best coaches remember them more because that’s how they are wired, and Scheyer, the legend of Glenbrook North High School of Illinois who continued and had a remarkable player career in Duke before working for Krzyzewski and becoming his successor, is a relentless competitor.
Duke’s astonishing loss recalls that anything can happen in the NCAA tournament. This is why we love this event. In a year when fans claimed more upheavals, they were treated to a pair of instant classics on Saturday, proving that this Final Four was well worth the wait.
Was the heartbreaking fashion in which this loss occurred would persist for this Duke program? Yes. Will Scheyer probably be at the idea that his coach movements on the return by plane return to Durham? Yes.
The magic of the tournament does not withdraw pain for Flagg, who had the chance to overthrow a game winner, but rather failed and did not fulfill his university mission. Flagg will go very well and will have a long career in the NBA. But in Duke, you are judged by rings. This is why they are the standard brand in sport.
Scheyer has proven that he was the right man to replace Krzyzewski, but a year after losing his colleague ACC in State Foe NC State in the Elite Eight, losing in this way, with a place in the National Line Championship, is even more brutal than the last.
Scheyer cannot let this loss define it. He has the classified recruitment lesson n ° 1 to come next year, entitled by Cameron and Cayden Boozer. It will bite, but it is important that Scheyer has a short memory, because in Duke, the standards will always remain the same: it all depends on what you have done lately. And until Scheyer returns the page of the 2025-26 season, and until he obtained this next signature victory in this tournament, it is a collapse that is too poignant not to leave a stain.
For Duke and his fans, Saturday was a nightmare that they could never have predicted to materialize. It is a game that they will want to forget in all ways, but it will not be easy to do so. After such a rewarding year filled with countless memorable moments, everything ended shocking on Saturday. Because to Scheyer and the Blue Devils, it is the one who fled to a distressing degree.
John Fanta is a national basketball and writer for Fox Sports. It covers sport in a variety of capabilities, from the call for games to FS1 to serve it as a main host on the digital network of Big East to the supply of comments on the field of the 68 media Network. Follow him to @John_fanta.
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