I have enjoyed watching this team play and grow and enjoy themselves thru the year and absolutely hate it for the players. Not going to think about next year yet, going to continue to enjoy this team.
I’m incredibly disappointed for the team. It has to be heartbreaking for the players to have the season end in such a manner. In the end, it takes both talent and luck to win six games in a row against increasingly talented opponents. Unfortunately, we had a bit of bad luck last night.
Same ref who made the awful call on Flagg to give them the go-ahead points was the ref who made most of the awful calls in the Arizona game. I watched the Arizona game twice to confirm. Sportsbooks had described Duke as a "liability" with so many futures bets on them through the year and the tourney to win it all. They would do very well if any other team won. The House always wins, because they don't leave it up to chance when that big of money is involved. The collapse started with that bs technical foul on Gillis when the Houston player flopped at light contact. Refs were letting them play the first 30 minutes of the game. But under about 8 minutes onward, those whistles sent Houston to the FT line over and over. But Houston was very physical with us with minimal calls on them. Team fouls were 5 on Houston 2 on Duke in the 2nd half. But from that point forward things shifted bigtime toward the other direction when it mattered most, enough to give them good momentum each time. Game pressure built on us more and more the closer it got.
We should have had Knueppel at the line shooting that all-important 1-and-1 free throw up 1 point with 20 seconds to go in the game. Not Proctor. We should have inbounded the ball without turning it over. We needed a better play coming out of a time-out than an iso Cooper Flagg fadeaway. Houston made some big shots, and we didn't. But that ref did what he was paid to do. It became abundantly obvious by the way the game was being called that Duke was not going to be able to cover a 5.5 point spread as the game got into the final minutes. And that ridiculous call he made on Flagg at the end buried us.
The huge sports gambling betting markets have ruined college basketball even more than NIL, transfer portal, etc.
This was an incredible team who won the ACC regular season unshared, won every game in Cameron, won the ACCT without Cooper Flagg, made the Final Four through chalk, and represented Duke with joy and class all the way. I'm buying the ACCT Champs and Final-4 T-shirts, and will always remember and be proud of this team with nothing but pride and fondness. I choose to believe that game was stolen from them by online gambling sports-books determined to make their profits. I respect others' right to feel differently.
I came to the game late, hurrying back from a distant family event. About 12 min left, and, to my relief a good Duke lead as I turned on the tube (but my too often felt ‘too-easy-too-early-oh-no-don’t-lose-a-good-lead’ pit of the stomach nervousness twitched a bit). Yet, as you’ve summarized - enough happened to get to less than 2 min with a lead. But suddenly the dandy Dookies couldn’t get the ball back into play - Out banged by bigger guys? How could no one get a step of separation! … no one catch a pass? … no one hold onto the ball? No one get a rebound? They struck me as gassed, disorganized, too tired to shot their usual shots. And, of course, all of that energized a very good Houston team …and … Well, darn! Darn, darn, darn, darn, darn!
Or, perhaps it was really my fault - one of those nights - a ‘they’ve been doing quite well without you tonight, why do you think it will help for you to sit here and watch the rest of the game?! [and it didn’t] sort of night. My apologies for putting such a sad ending to a perfectly delightful season this year!
These games always end in tears: tears of joy or tears of heartbreak.
I'm still stunned at the way Duke lost; not that Houston beat them, but that Duke melted down from a 14 point lead ( 59-45) with 8:17 to play; outscored 11-1 in the last 1:14 of the game.
Shocked and stunned. It will take more than a warm summer to erase the hurt.
As Pittsburgh Steeler coach Mike Tomlin famously said: " The Standard is the Standard;" and Duke's standard is National Championships- so this team, while fun and wonderful, did not live up to the standard expected. Harsh but true.
Is this just part of 37 year old coach Jon Scheyer's learning curve ?
Would having coach Jai Lucas on the bench in the second half have helped ?
I have enjoyed watching this team play and grow and enjoy themselves thru the year and absolutely hate it for the players. Not going to think about next year yet, going to continue to enjoy this team.
I’m incredibly disappointed for the team. It has to be heartbreaking for the players to have the season end in such a manner. In the end, it takes both talent and luck to win six games in a row against increasingly talented opponents. Unfortunately, we had a bit of bad luck last night.
Same ref who made the awful call on Flagg to give them the go-ahead points was the ref who made most of the awful calls in the Arizona game. I watched the Arizona game twice to confirm. Sportsbooks had described Duke as a "liability" with so many futures bets on them through the year and the tourney to win it all. They would do very well if any other team won. The House always wins, because they don't leave it up to chance when that big of money is involved. The collapse started with that bs technical foul on Gillis when the Houston player flopped at light contact. Refs were letting them play the first 30 minutes of the game. But under about 8 minutes onward, those whistles sent Houston to the FT line over and over. But Houston was very physical with us with minimal calls on them. Team fouls were 5 on Houston 2 on Duke in the 2nd half. But from that point forward things shifted bigtime toward the other direction when it mattered most, enough to give them good momentum each time. Game pressure built on us more and more the closer it got.
We should have had Knueppel at the line shooting that all-important 1-and-1 free throw up 1 point with 20 seconds to go in the game. Not Proctor. We should have inbounded the ball without turning it over. We needed a better play coming out of a time-out than an iso Cooper Flagg fadeaway. Houston made some big shots, and we didn't. But that ref did what he was paid to do. It became abundantly obvious by the way the game was being called that Duke was not going to be able to cover a 5.5 point spread as the game got into the final minutes. And that ridiculous call he made on Flagg at the end buried us.
The huge sports gambling betting markets have ruined college basketball even more than NIL, transfer portal, etc.
This was an incredible team who won the ACC regular season unshared, won every game in Cameron, won the ACCT without Cooper Flagg, made the Final Four through chalk, and represented Duke with joy and class all the way. I'm buying the ACCT Champs and Final-4 T-shirts, and will always remember and be proud of this team with nothing but pride and fondness. I choose to believe that game was stolen from them by online gambling sports-books determined to make their profits. I respect others' right to feel differently.
I came to the game late, hurrying back from a distant family event. About 12 min left, and, to my relief a good Duke lead as I turned on the tube (but my too often felt ‘too-easy-too-early-oh-no-don’t-lose-a-good-lead’ pit of the stomach nervousness twitched a bit). Yet, as you’ve summarized - enough happened to get to less than 2 min with a lead. But suddenly the dandy Dookies couldn’t get the ball back into play - Out banged by bigger guys? How could no one get a step of separation! … no one catch a pass? … no one hold onto the ball? No one get a rebound? They struck me as gassed, disorganized, too tired to shot their usual shots. And, of course, all of that energized a very good Houston team …and … Well, darn! Darn, darn, darn, darn, darn!
Or, perhaps it was really my fault - one of those nights - a ‘they’ve been doing quite well without you tonight, why do you think it will help for you to sit here and watch the rest of the game?! [and it didn’t] sort of night. My apologies for putting such a sad ending to a perfectly delightful season this year!
These games always end in tears: tears of joy or tears of heartbreak.
I'm still stunned at the way Duke lost; not that Houston beat them, but that Duke melted down from a 14 point lead ( 59-45) with 8:17 to play; outscored 11-1 in the last 1:14 of the game.
Shocked and stunned. It will take more than a warm summer to erase the hurt.
As Pittsburgh Steeler coach Mike Tomlin famously said: " The Standard is the Standard;" and Duke's standard is National Championships- so this team, while fun and wonderful, did not live up to the standard expected. Harsh but true.
Is this just part of 37 year old coach Jon Scheyer's learning curve ?
Would having coach Jai Lucas on the bench in the second half have helped ?
Questions abound when you lose like we did.
On to the portal and 2026.