Duke freshman point guard Cayden Boozer has endured a lot of heat since his critical turnover in Sunday's Elite Eight loss to UConn, both from Duke haters and, unfortunately, plenty of Blue Devils fans.
Boozer saw an opportunity to end the game with a run-out dunk with both Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba alone in the frontcourt, and he took it. Unfortunately, UConn deflected the pass, the ball found the hands of Braylon Mullins, and he hit a 35-footer with 0.4 seconds to play to hand Duke a heartbreaking defeat.
If you want to blame anyone for the Boozer pass, you should pass that blame to his head coach. Jon Scheyer is seen clear as day instructing Boozer to pass it ahead instead of holding it. That's obviously something that was coached.
In any case, it's an unfortunate ending to the season for Duke, and an unfortunate moment that marred an otherwise strong performance by Boozer in the Elite Eight.
Boozer had a brilliant game prior to the turnover, putting up 15 points with 5 rebounds and 6 assists. That's a fact that legendary former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't going to let anyone forget.
"I feel so bad for Cayden Boozer," Coach K said on The Pat McAfee Show. "He was man enough to do the interviews, and he took individual responsibility. ...Your 15 points in the first half were the reason we were up by 15 points at halftime. He played an outstanding game.
"It wasn't one play, I'm telling you, we turned the ball over too much."
Coach K comes to the defense of Duke freshman Cayden Boozer
It was tough to see Boozer so upset in the locker room after the game. It's hard not to respect his willingness to sit in there and face the music, though. He could have avoided the interview if he wanted. Duke would have protected him from it, and he wouldn't be anywhere close to the first player to do that after that kind of situation.
Coach K is right, though, in that Boozer had played an outstanding game up until that point and was a big reason why the Blue Devils had built a big lead.
It's unfortunate how things ultimately played out. Losing like that is hard to stomach for all Duke fans, but as bad as you might feel, I can assure you that Boozer feels worse.
Hopefully, he'll come back for his sophomore season and be put in a situation where he can redeem himself and maybe, just maybe, help Duke break the 11-year championship drought.