Coach Jon Scheyer’s No. 1-seeded Duke Blue Devils suffered an agonizing 73-72 loss to coach Dan Hurley’s No. 2-seeded UConn Huskies in the Elite Eight on Sunday evening to fall short of the Final Four. Once again, the Blue Devils fell apart in a crucial game in the Big Dance to allow their dream of a national championship to slip away.
The Blue Devils led by as much as 19 points in the marquee contest and held a 44-29 halftime lead before the Huskies mounted one of the unlikeliest comebacks in NCAA Tournament history.
Jay Bilas Ranks Duke’s Loss to UConn as the Worst in Program History
During Monday’s segment of the “Yahoo Sports Daily” podcast, Duke alum Jay Bilas ranked the loss to UConn as the greatest loss in Blue Devils history and revealed the drill that the team practices to deal with the play that allowed UConn to get the ball to win.
“It’ll probably be No. 1,” Bilas said. “You have to give UConn a great deal of credit for the fight shown. I think Jon Scheyer was right in his press conference that it wasn’t about the one play, until it got down to the one play. Duke only scored 28 points in the second half; they shot over 50%, but they had 8 turnovers to UConn’s 1.”
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“There were a number of miscues and mistakes that led to that last play. Cayden Boozer catches the ball and Duke does the drill every day, whether it was Coach K for 40 years or Jon Scheyer. They call it four-coach passing drill and it’s dealing with full-court pressure. It was great execution by UConn and it was poor execution by Duke.”
Was Duke’s loss to UConn its worst in school history? 😵💫
Blue Devils alum @JayBilas weighed in on Duke’s collapse in the Elite Eight.
(via Yahoo Sports Daily) pic.twitter.com/sc0wyTq1qy
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 30, 2026
Cayden Boozer’s attempted lob with 10 seconds to go allowed UConn’s Silas Demary Jr. to tip the ball, which was then secured by Braylon Mullins, passed to Alex Karaban, and returned to the freshman to write the headlines with his 35-foot shot that broke Duke fans’ hearts.
Mike Krzyzewski Heartbroken by Blue Devils’ Loss to UConn
During an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who handed the baton to coach Jon Scheyer when he retired in 2022, detailed the heartbreak of seeing his former team lose against UConn.
“It was heartbreaking and it was a great basketball game..
I haven’t coached for four years and I couldn’t fall asleep last night..
I have such great empathy for our guys”
Coach K #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/r9tXN5x9C8
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 30, 2026
“It was heartbreaking,” Krzyzewski said. “I am telling you. Even though I haven’t coached for four years now. It was a great, great basketball game. Not a good one. It was a great game. I could not fall asleep last night. I felt like I was a part of that. And then you’re thinking about all these individual kids and how you are going to take care of them.”
The Blue Devils finished the season with a stunning 35-3 record and lost their 3 games by a combined 5 points. The losses came to the Texas Tech Red Raiders 82-81 in December, 71-68 to the North Carolina Tar Heels in February, and the 1-point loss to UConn on Sunday.
