Duke shockingly crashed out of the men's NCAA tournament after blowing a late lead in their 70-67 national semifinal loss to Houston Saturday night.
The Blue Devils led by 14 points with eight minutes left on the clock but slowly saw their big lead get chipped away by a tenacious Cougars side that wasn't going to go down easy. Duke star Cooper Flagg, who finished with a team-high 27 points on 8-of-19 shooting, was involved in two pivotal plays at the end of the game, though the loss hardly was on him.
Rather, it was on the entire Duke squad, ESPN analyst and Duke alum Jay Williams said after witnessing his team's unbelievable meltdown.
"This is probably the worst Duke loss that I think they've had in a long time," Williams said on SportsCenter. "There were a lot of times in the first half Duke had a nine-point lead, you felt like the lead should have been 18. You felt like it was similar to the Alabama game where Houston was always there, but you felt like Duke was going to pull away when it mattered most down the stretch."
Narrator: They did not, in fact, pull away down the stretch. Duke suffered from a plethora of poor inbounds plays, missed shots and sloppy mental errors in the final seconds of the Final Four loss. The team made two field goals in the final 13 minutes and got iced out in the final three—not exactly the kind of close-out Williams and other Duke fans were expecting from a tournament favorite.
"The collapse, the shrinking," continued Williams. "Game pressure is a real thing. And I think it was the first time where you felt like you were watching a young Duke team finish in a young way down the stretch.
"Those are daily habits that veterans do—you run the baseline, get the ball to the middle third of the floor, you provide a target, you secure the ball with two hands, you turn your face. Those small details down the stretch, you didn't see Duke do which led to an incredible... Duke didn't give the game away, Houston took the game... But Duke definitely played a significant part of that."
“Duke didn’t give the game away, Houston took the game."@RealJayWilliams debriefs Duke's loss in the Final Four. pic.twitter.com/rZpMebliVc
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 6, 2025
Credit to Houston, who fought until the very end and were rewarded for their efforts. The Cougars will take on the Florida Gators in the national championship game on Monday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jay Williams Rips Duke for Late-Game Mistakes in Stunning Loss to Houston.
