The UConn Huskies served up perhaps the most defining moment of the Big Dance when they wiped out a 19-point deficit to defeat the Duke Blue Devils with a heave from talented guard Braylon Mullins with 0.4 seconds left on the clock in the Elite Eight. The loss represented a monumental collapse by the Blue Devils after a dominant regular season.
Meanwhile, the Huskies fell just short of winning their third national championship in four years, but firmly established themselves as a dynasty under charismatic coach Dan Hurley.
Analyst Makes UConn and Duke Blue Blood Argument
In Monday’s segment of the “Inside College Basketball” podcast, CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein argued that in the current open transfer portal and NIL climate, only the Huskies and the Blue Devils still operated like traditional blue bloods in college basketball.
“There are two programs in college basketball that are still operating as traditional blue bloods,” Rothstein said. “It’s UConn and Duke, it’s Duke and UConn. And that is reiterated when you really dissect the rosters of the other blue bloods in college basketball.”
For the first time in three years, coach Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils did not finish the recruiting cycle with the No. 1 class in college basketball after being usurped by recruitment guru, Arkansas Razorbacks’ John Calipari.
Scheyer’s Blue Devils came in second in ESPN’s recruitment class rankings and despite losing Isaiah Evans, Maliq Brown and the dominant Cameron Boozer, they retained their talented core of Dame Sarr, Cayden Boozer, Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba. In addition, they welcomed Deron Rippey Jr., John Blackwell, Cameron Williams and Bryson Howard.
After managing a top-five recruitment class last year, Hurley’s Huskies pivoted to the transfer portal and dropped to No. 23 in ESPN’s recruitment class rankings. In addition to a core consisting of Jayden Ross, Silas Demary Jr., Braylon Mullins and Solo Ball, UConn welcomed Nils Machowski, Oskar Giltay, Na’Jai Hines and Nik Khamenia.
Rothstein further reviewed three college basketball blue bloods that have fallen on hard times due to their less-than-impressive roster building via the transfer portal and recruitment cycle.
“I wanna take a look at three of them: Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky. As of today, in the Rothstein 45, Kentucky is ranked No. 40, Kansas is ranked No. 30, and North Carolina is ranked No. 26. Of those three right now, Carolina has the best roster.”
In a rematch of the Elite Eight, Duke and UConn will play against each other in a neutral-site game in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Eve to set the tone for the next season as they both attempt to claim the national championship.
