Thoughts On The UConn Loss

There’s not a whole lot to say about Sunday’s loss to UConn, but we did want to mention a few things.

First, we feel terrible for Cayden Boozer. If you’ll remember back when Caleb Foster was hurt, Boozer really stepped up. And it’s more than that, because that guy made winning plays over and over. Duke would not be in the Elite Eight without Cayden Boozer.

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Second, he didn’t run from his mistake at the end. He took full responsibility for that.

He’s a guard with a real winning mentality, and we hope he comes back next year and shows the world who he is.

We should also mention that this reminded us of the 2004 Final Four game against UConn. Duke was in great shape there, but Shelden Williams got in foul trouble, and Shavlik Randolph was recovering from mono. And when Williams got in foul trouble, there was no controlling Emeka Okafor.

It was similar last night. Tarris Reed is a massive problem, and Duke could have really used a healthy Pat Ngongba. When we heard that Maliq Brown had back spasms, we immediately thought: it’s 2004, all over again.

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Jon Scheyer is getting raked over the coals, and that’s not fair for a couple of reasons. First, he did an amazing job after Foster was injured. Duke went into the post-season with Foster and Ngongba not playing. That’s 40% of the lineup lost, and he still steered that team to the Elite Eight.

We think he now has the best record of any fourth-year coach, ever. That tops Bob Knight, who had an incredible start at Indiana, Brad Stevens, Steve Fisher, who started with the Fab Five – everyone.

Third, even though he’s been immensely successful and nailed the transition from Mike Krzyzewski to this era, fraught as it is with new circumstances, it takes a while to master the job, not least of all the postseason. John Wooden started coaching in 1946 and didn’t win the championship until 1964. Dean Smith started in 1961 and didn’t win until 1982. Even after that, he lost twice with Michael Jordan…

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Publish date : 2026-03-30 16:04:00

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