Rating Duke's worst NCAA match losses since its final title, together with that collapse vs. UConn

[ad_1] Duke's March Insanity run ended on Sunday on the Elite Eight, and what an ending it was. The Blue Devils blew a 15-point halftime lead, coughed up the ball within the remaining seconds and watched UConn’s Braylon Mullins boot them out of the NCAA match.

It was a painful loss, but it surely has firm in Duke's oeuvre of embarrassing March Insanity exits. It is a very proud program that has seen among the greatest NBA prospects of the previous decade come via its doorways, with no title to point out for it since they gained all of it in 2015 underneath Mike Krzyzewski.

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This is a listing of the Blue Devils' worst NCAA match losses previously 11 title-less years. It is value noting the Blue Devils did not make the match in 2021 once they have been 13-11 and had no match to play in for 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Three of its losses (2016, 2018, 2023) have been additionally as decrease seeds and subsequently not included.

6. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 South Carolina, 2017 second spherical Main scorers: Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard

Tatum, Kennard and Grayson Allen have gone on to get pleasure from profitable NBA careers, however their time collectively in faculty was lower than preferrred.

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Duke was ranked No. 1 within the preseason AP Ballot with Allen as a Nationwide Participant of the Yr contender and Tatum and Harry Giles looming as this system's subsequent nice freshmen. The perfect Duke groups underneath Mike Krzyzewski mixed NBA lottery-bound freshmen and veteran leaders, and this one positively match the invoice.

It was curious, then, that this group did not actually get going till Kennard, a five-star recruit in his sophomore 12 months, stepped up because the group's first choice on offense and have become an All-American. That transforming appeared to save lots of Duke's season, till it fell aside towards a South Carolina group prepared for all the things that they had.

Duke simply could not cease the Gamecocks' Sindarius Thornwell within the second half, and a season's value of dysfunction all got here floating again up.

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5. No. 4 Duke vs. No. 11 NC State, 2024 Elite Eight Main scorers: Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain

From an NBA standpoint, that is most likely the least-talented Duke group on this checklist. The No. 4-seeded Blue Devils seemed good, not nice of their second 12 months underneath Scheyer, however knocked off No. 1 Houston within the Candy 16 to arrange what seemed like an especially favorable matchup to succeed in the Last 4.

NC State reached the match solely due to an unprecedented ACC match run, which included a win over Duke. A repeat win for the overachieving Wolfpack was a tall order, proper?

Proper?

Duke has had higher groups lose within the match, however there have been only some instances when a loss like that hit so near residence, towards an in-state foe they do not even name their greatest rival.

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4. No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 UConn, 2026 Elite Eight Main scorers: Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans

The No. 1 general seed was at the least courteous sufficient to present us some warning this March Insanity run may not go as hoped. They wanted comebacks to beat each No. 16 seed Siena and No. 5 seed St. John’s, with the previous changing into the primary No. 16 seed to carry a double-digit halftime lead over a No. 1 seed.

However Duke didn’t want a comeback to beat UConn. It simply wanted to carry on. Duke led by as many as 19 factors within the first half, however Dan Hurley’s group simply saved chipping away. Even then, although, Duke simply needed to maintain onto the ball with 10 seconds left, as a substitute of… this.

It was a mortifying collapse. But in addition not Duke’s most mortifying collapse of the previous two years.

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3. No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 Michigan State, 2019 Elite Eight Main scorers: Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett

Williamson's NBA profession has been rockier than anticipated, but it surely can't be forgotten how a lot a sensation he was in his solely 12 months with Duke, or how he was solely their third-best freshman on some recruiting rankings.

Williamson, Barrett and Cam Reddish gave Duke the highest three recruits within the nation and so they completely lived as much as the hype (in mixture). That group felt nearly inevitable, then No. 2 seed Michigan State confirmed it was no slouch both. In considered one of Tom Izzo's greatest teaching jobs, the Spartans withstood some inhuman stuff from Williamson to beat the match's high general seed.

By the usual of missed alternatives, this group may high any on this checklist. At the very least final 12 months’s group of Cooper Flagg and Co., whom we might describe as equally gifted, made the Last 4.

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2. No. 1 Duke vs. No. 1 Houston, 2025 Last 4 Main scorers: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel

The perfect that may be stated about final 12 months’s loss is that it was a high quality matchup, a fellow No. 1 seed, and it required a really questionable name by the officers.

The remainder, properly, let's recall how Duke led by as a lot as 14 in that recreation, the fifth-largest blown lead in Last 4 historical past, and by 9 with lower than three minutes left. Flagg appeared to ship a number of daggers, however Houston simply saved sticking round whereas the Blue Devils offense went absolute-zero chilly, with just one discipline aim within the remaining 10 minutes.

Duke entered the Last 4 because the odds-on favourite to win all of it and simply wanted a semblance of an offense from a group with three projected lottery picks, considered one of them maybe the very best American prospect since Anthony Davis or LeBron James, to succeed in the championship recreation towards Florida.

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As a substitute, it obtained what could be an all-time worst loss for many packages. However not Duke.

1. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 8 UNC, 2022 Last 4 Main scorers: Paolo Banchero, Wendell Moore Jr.

Let's be actual: Duke might have blown a 50-point lead on Sunday and it will not have been No. 1 on this checklist.

There isn't any redeeming going through your greatest rival — the most important rivalry in all of school basketball — for the primary time within the NCAA match, within the Last 4, in your legendary coach's remaining recreation, and shedding to a No. 8 seed on an entire YOLO run, with Caleb Love offering the dagger.

It doesn't matter what Duke does from right here on out and what number of rings Jon Scheyer or a successor find yourself successful. For the remainder of our lives, any Duke fan publicly reminiscing in regards to the nice Coach Ok should look over their shoulder, simply to ensure there is not a smirking UNC fan about to remind them the way it all ended.