SAN ANTONIO – All season long, he had the whole world in his hands. Now, the whole world was watching.
With 13 seconds on the clock and Duke’s national championship aspirations hanging by a thread, the Blue Devils’ fate once again rested in the capable hands of their freshman prodigy, Cooper Flagg. Duke had been in command all night, leading fellow No. 1 seed Houston by 14 points with just over eight minutes to play in this Final Four semifinal. Now, incredibly, the Blue Devils trailed by one, the first time they had been behind since early in the first half.
To that point, Flagg had been his usual brilliant self, going for 27 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals. When Duke coach Jon Scheyer called timeout shortly after the Cougars had gone ahead on two free throws by 6-foot-8 senior forward J’Wan Roberts, everyone in the Alamodome — indeed, everyone in the world — knew exactly where he wanted the ball to go.
And so it did. With 17.2 seconds on the clock, Duke 6-foot-6 senior guard Sion James inbounded the ball to 6-foot-7 freshman guard Kon Knueppel. Flagg cut to the ball, received the pass from Knueppel and turned to face Roberts, his defender. Houston coach Kelvin Sampson elected not to send a double team, a smart strategy considering Flagg had shredded the Cougars all night with his passing. It was good old-fashioned, NBA-style isolation basketball. Flagg drove two dribbles to his left, spun back toward his right shoulder for two more dribbles, backed Roberts toward the post, spun over his left shoulder, reached his left hand behind him to nudge Roberts to the side, squared to the basket, faded away, let it fly …
So many times this season, Flagg’s shot was true. This time, it lied, bouncing harmlessly off the rim and into the hands of Houston 6-foot-3 senior guard Mylik Wilson. Wilson shoved it to 6-foot-1 senior guard L.J. Cryer, who immediately was fouled by Duke guard Tyrese Proctor. Cryer went to the foul line and calmly sank two free throws to give the Cougars a 70-67 cushion.
With 3.7 seconds left, Duke had one more chance at a miracle, but Proctor’s 35-foot heave went over the backboard. Just like that, the Blue Devils’ big lead and Flagg’s magical season went up in smoke and it was Houston, not Duke, that advanced to play in Monday’s championship game against Florida, which beat Auburn 79-73 in another battle of No. 1 seeds in the first semifinal.
“It’s the play Coach (Jon Scheyer) drew up,” Flagg said. “Took it into the paint. Thought I got my feet set. Rose up. Left it short, obviously. A shot I’m willing to live with in that scenario. I went up on the rim and trusted the work that I’ve put in.”
Houston’s win wasn’t pretty, but it stood as a testament to a program that has been built on a culture of toughness and resilience that reflects its 69-year-old hardscrabble coach. “Coach (Sampson) always tells us just keep playing, fight, never quit. If you lose the game and you didn’t quit, you didn’t really lose,” Roberts said. “Going into games like this, you never want to go down, but it happens. But once you don’t quit and you believe, anything can happen.”
When it was over, Sampson sounded like a man who was exhausted and appreciative, but not entirely surprised. “Awesome win for my kids,” he said. “One thing in our timeouts, we’ve been here before. It’s not like we were down 20. It’s not like we weren’t playing great. We felt like if we could get it close enough to put some game pressure on them, then something good could happen.”
The Cougars used a tried-and-true formula to win the game. They crashed the offensive glass with their usual abandon, collecting 18 of their 38 misses, a 47.4 percent rate that was well ahead of their 37.0 clip on the season, which ranked 10th nationally, per KenPom. They benefited from a gutsy performance from Cryer, the only player in this game who played all 40 minutes; he finished with 26 points (he was 6-of-9 from three-point range), 5 rebounds and those clutch free throws with 3.7 seconds left. And they applied their customary lock-down defense, which limited the Blue Devils to just one field goal over the last 10:31. After falling behind by 14, Houston finished the game on a 25-8 run.
To be sure, the Cougars also needed help from their opponents. The final eight-and-a-half minutes featured a flurry of funky moments that gathered momentum down the stretch:
- A Flagrant 1 foul called on Duke senior forward Mason Gillis with 7:58 to play for swiping Houston sophomore forward Joseph Tugler across the face on an attempted box out. Cryer made the first technical free throw and missed the second, but Houston got the rebound, which led to a Cryer jumper that cut Duke’s lead to 59-51.
- Flagg gave Duke a huge boost with 3:03 to play when he drilled a three-pointer from the right corner to put the Blue Devils up 64-55, then swatted away Tugler’s attempt to score off an offensive rebound. Tugler also made a critical error with 1:14 to play when he reached across the baseline and swatted away the ball from James before he could inbound. The technical foul led to a made free throw by Knueppel.
- Because of Duke’s proficiency at the foul line (the Blue Devils would finish 18-of-23), Sampson elected not to foul on the ensuing possession despite trailing by six. The gamble paid off when Tugler blocked Knueppel’s attempt at the rim and Emanuel Sharp drilled a three to cut it to 67-64 with 33 seconds remaining. That was the closest Houston had been since the 5:42 mark of the first half, and it sent the heavily red-clad crowd into a tizzy.
- After a putback dunk by Tugler made it 67-66 with 25 seconds remaining, Sampson had no chance but to foul. Proctor, who picked the worst time to play his worst game of the season (seven points, 0-of-4 from three-point range), went to the line for a one-and-one. He missed. Flagg was whistled for a foul on the attempted rebound — a questionable call, given the minimal contact — which led to the two free throws by Roberts, a 62 percent shooter from the line, that gave Houston the lead and set the table for the final sequence.
During his postgame news conference, Scheyer spoke of the pride he felt in leading a team dominated by freshmen to the Final Four, while acknowledging that this game exposed the vulnerabilities of being so young.
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“The thing I loved about this group, they had a purity to them,” he said. “We’ve done this thing differently. Being young, to be this successful, part of them doesn’t know any better, which is great. Then, also, these are the things that experience gives you when you go through these moments. Unfortunately, it comes with the tournament. It’s the most heartbreaking thing.”
Sampson and several Houston players referenced a similarly dramatic comeback they staged at Kansas on Jan. 25, when they won in double overtime. “We had a game like this earlier in the year, the Kansas game; this reminded me of that game,” Cryer said. “You know, it’s never over. As long as there is time on the clock, we’ve got to continue to fight. So we kept believing and we got it done.”
Now the Cougars have one more opportunity to get it done against a Florida team that looks as dominant as Duke did for most of Saturday night’s contest. The Gators will go into the game knowing it likely will take 40 full minutes to finish the job. Houston was one Cooper Flagg shot away from having its season end. Because he missed, and because the Cougars never quit, they now have one final shot to take.
