WASHINGTON, D.C. – Cayden Boozer could have held onto the ball. Duke could have taken a foul. Brayden Mullins could have stumbled, bricked the three.
But in a season that featured blown leads in each of its three losses, it was too late to play “what-if?”
Beneath Capital One Arena on Sunday night, the Blue Devils were whispering to the media. Tears were trickling from Cameron Boozer’s black eye. There would be no cut net, no “bye-bye” from Carlos Boozer. Like last season, Duke would shatter. Its pieces would land across the transfer portal and in the NBA Draft. Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer would start again.
Upstairs, UConn coach Danny Hurley was dancing to “All I Do Is Win.”
The Elite Eight matchup between Duke and UConn was just about settled at halftime. It looked to be another steamroll. Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr had combined for 35 points. UConn had 29 total and trailed by 15.
Worst of all, the Huskies were shooting 9 percent from the arc, crowned by an 0-of-8 outing from “three of the best shooters in the country” per Hurley: senior forward Alex Karaban, junior guard Solo Ball and freshman guard Braylon Mullins.
“We just felt like we let our offense really dictate how we were playing in the first half,” Karaban told reporters. “The flow of our offense really got disrupted.”
But UConn looked rejuvenated heading into the second half. Tarris Reed Jr. and Mullins traded buckets with Duke, made some stops. Then began a war of attrition: Blue Devils score two, Huskies score four.
“When you’re playing a team as good as UConn,” Scheyer said, “that’s all they really need.”
With 7:59 left, Duke led by 11. It led by nine with 5:03 to play. But less than a minute later, the Huskies had cut the deficit to five. The lead fluctuated then, from four, to three, to five, to three. With 10 seconds to play and Duke up three, Cam Boozer fouled UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. Two shots. Demary sank the second. Duke’s objective was simple: Inbound the ball, hold it and wait for a foul or time to expire.
The game had grown too close for comfort — like St. John’s (in the Sweet Sixteen), Siena (in the first round of the NCAA Tournament), Virginia (in the ACC Tournament final) and Florida State (in an ACC tourney quarterfinal) — but the Blue Devils still had this one in the palm of their hand.
“We just have to secure it, right? We got it,” Scheyer said. “They had a foul. I was ready for a timeout. We’ve just got to hold on.”
Sarr inbounds to Cam Boozer. Boozer passes it back to Sarr. Sarr sails it to Cayden Boozer in the middle of the court. He just needs to hold the ball. There are seven seconds left. But Boozer moves to chuck the ball ahead and it’s deflected by Demary. Mullins picks it up on the other side of midcourt with 4.6 seconds left, and passes to Karaban, who passes back to Mullins. The fate of the two teams’ seasons are in the hands of a 19-year-old true freshman. Mullins shoots from the logo, a quick release. Nothing but net on his first made three-pointer of the game.
In the last quarter-second, Duke tries a full-court pass. No good. UConn is headed to Indy for the Final Four. By the time the media storm the court, the Blue Devils have disappeared into the tunnel.
Braylon Mullins' Buzzer Beater Sends UConn to the Final Four
Mullins’ miracle three-pointer delivered the Huskies an unforgettable 73-72 win over Duke in the Elite Eight
When Duke’s locker room opened around 8:45 p.m., most of the crying was already over. Cayden Boozer sat against the back wall, with tear-streaked cheeks and a blood-stained jersey. You couldn’t tell where the blood had come from — he wasn’t bleeding and no one asked.
“I saw two people down there (on the other side of midcourt): Isaiah (Evans) and Pat (Ngongba). Just tried to get them the ball because Isaiah’s our best free throw shooter,” Boozer said. “I let our team down.”
Boozer was 4-of-5 from the field, had six assists, five rebounds, five turnovers and two steals. His season — once played in his brother’s shadow — had been a steady build to this: a postseason in which he proved his mettle. He had become an essential part of the Duke machine when Caleb Foster was injured. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
“Being able to do what we did this year is really special,” he said. “I just feel like I let (Cameron) down.”
Cam Boozer didn’t mention his twin in his news conference. He entered and sank into a chair in the back of the room. Sometime after the game, a black eye had formed from an inadvertent elbow he received in the first half. He had been crying.
UConn’s presser hadn’t started yet and “We Are the Champions” still was pounding through the locker room wall.
“We’re all hurting. I wish I could have gave more for those guys – Caleb, Pat and Maliq (Brown),” he told reporters. “Everyone’s hurting, dealing with injuries, coming and playing. It took a lot of heart. It took a lot of balls to do that.”
A key part of the Blue Devils’ tournament story had been weathering those injuries. Ngongba, Duke’s starting center and defensive anchor, injured his foot in early March and missed five games, including the ACC Tournament final and the Siena win. Foster missed the ACC Tournament, plus Duke’s first two NCAA tourney games, including a second-round rout of TCU.
Foster was key in the Sweet Sixteen win over St. John’s. Both played Sunday, Ngongba for 22 minutes and Foster for 14. Foster struggled, finishing with zero points and three turnovers. But Ngongba had six points, five rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block.
Across the locker room, Evans was ruminating. Last season, he and the Blue Devils coughed up a 14-point lead to Houston in a national semifinal. On a roster of future NBA players, trouble down the stretch knocked Duke out of the tournament. He was living it again.
“What this season meant to me was redemption,” Evans told reporters. “I knew that I was gonna be in a position to help Duke get another national championship. We had the team to do it and we all worked really hard.”
Both Boozers and Evans were selected to the All-East Regional team. Brown, Sarr and Ngongba had their moments during the tournament. None of it was enough to advance.
“I think we fought hard. We gave a lot,” Cam Boozer said. “I think as a whole we could have gave a lot more.”
I was the last reporter in Duke’s locker room. Against the wall, tucked into a cubicle, someone was crying quietly. Outside, the assistant coaches whispered to each other, waiting for the bus to be packed and for Scheyer to arrive.
Monday, they will begin combing through a list of prospective transfers, contact recruits and plan their offseason. Sunday night, though, it was a muted funeral for the championship team that never was.
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