Duke fans distraught over bogus foul that robbed Cooper Flagg of National Title shot

Duke was heading to the National Championship Game on Monday night to face Florida and Walter Clayton Jr. It was over. Cooper Flagg hit a three from the right corner with 3:04 remaining to put the Blue Devils up nine points, and it was done. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t. 

Houston closed on an 11-1 run over the final 1:14 seconds to overcome that deficit and escape with a 70-67 win and a spot in the National Championship Game. However, for Duke fans, that 11-1 run and 1:14 stretch won’t just live in infamy, but in controversy. 

With Duke ahead 67-66 after plenty of inbounding woes from the Blue Devils, Tyrese Proctor was fouled and sent to the free-throw line. An under 50% free-throw shooter in the NCAA Tournament, the junior guard missed the front end of the one-and-one, which led directly to a foul on Wooden Award winner Cooper Flagg as he went for the rebound and was boxed out by Houston’s J’Wan Roberts. 

Roberts, the sixth-year senior and heart-and-soul of Kelvin Sampson’s Houston program, knocked down both ensuing free throws, despite shooting well under 70% this season himself. Houston took a one-point lead that it would not relinquish as Flagg came up short on his potential game-winning jump shot from the paint with eight seconds remaining. 

Duke fans were rightfully upset, from the soft call in what was a very physical game throughout. However, those who bleed blue weren’t the only ones astounded by the game-deciding call. Popular sports media personalities weighed in with their opinions, and so did those “without a dog in the fight.” Everybody had a thought about Flagg’s late-game foul and almost nobody thought a whistle should’ve been blown. 

Yet, for as frustrating as the foul call was and how monumentally it will shape the story of Jon Scheyer’s tenure as head coach in Durham and Cooper Flagg’s one-year career as a Blue Devil, this is the most important point to make about the entire situation.