No way this just happened again.
A year after blowing a 14-point second-half lead and surrendering a 9-0 run down the stretch to blow a seven-point advantage with 90 seconds to play against Houston in the Final Four, Duke just did it again, perhaps in even more improbable fashion.
Duke led UConn by as many as 19 points in the first half, and led almost wire-to-wire except for a 2-0 early Huskies lead, until Braylon Mullins drained a 35-foot three-pointer with 0.4 seconds to play to give UConn an improbable 73-72 win.
Stunning doesn't even begin to describe it.
And Jon Scheyer has some questions he'll have to answer. As good a job as he has done in succeeding Mike Krzyzewski, these March Madness collapses in back-to-back seasons are unacceptable.
Duke had no poise down the stretch and that starts at the top with Jon Scheyer
This game was over. Duke was punching its ticket to the Final Four for a second straight season. The Blue Devils overwhelmed the Huskies on the defensive end in the first half and took a 44-29 lead at halftime.
But UConn just kept chipping away and chipping away, and Duke just refused to put them away. They left the door open for just long enough for Mullins to hit the dagger.
And it all happened because of a lack of poise down the stretch from Duke. Leading 72-69, Duke caught a break when Silas Demary missed one of two free throws with 10 seconds to go to keep Duke ahead by two points. All the Blue Devils had to do was inbound the ball, knock down some free throws, and they could get on a plane and head to Indianapolis.
Instead, Cayden Boozer tried to throw the ball forward for what would have been an open dunk, UConn knocked it away, and then Mullins hit the shot that ended Duke's season.
BRAYLON MULLINS HITS A DEEEEEEEEP 3 FOR UCONN TO MAKE THE FINAL FOUR pic.twitter.com/l1bFpVEH85
— Daydrink (@daydrinkmedia) March 29, 2026
This is not how this team's story was supposed to end. The collapse against Houston was not how last season was supposed to end, either.
Statistically, these last two Duke teams have been two of the best teams of all time, per KenPom. And Duke hasn't even reached a title game, much less won one.
These might end up being the two best Duke teams of the Scheyer era. An era that looks a lot more questionable right now than it did three weeks ago, when Duke was putting the finishing touches on a dominant regular season that led to the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance.
Scheyer's going to have to look in the mirror and get this figured out. These collapses can't keep happening.
The clock is ticking.