What a great ending to Duke's March Madness run, which ended on Sunday in the Elite Eight. The Blue Devils blew a 15-point halftime lead, spit out the ball in the final seconds and watched as UConn's Braylon Mullins ejected them from the NCAA tournament.
It's a painful loss, but it goes hand in hand with Duke's embarrassing March Madness exit in the works. It's a program with a lot to be proud of that has seen some of the best NBA prospects of the last decade, but hasn't had any titles to show for it since winning it all under Mike Krzyzewski in 2015.
advertise
You can't do that without some games that make you want to crawl into a hole in the ground.
Here's a list of the Blue Devils' worst losses in the NCAA tournament in the past 11 years without a championship. Notably, the Blue Devils went 13-11 in 2021, failing to reach the tournament, and they also did not play in the 2020 tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three of those losses (2016, 2018, 2023) were also among lower seeds and therefore not included.
6. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 South Carolina, 2017 second round
Main scorers: Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard
Tatum, Kennard, and Grayson Allen went on to enjoy successful NBA careers, but their time in college was less than ideal.
advertise
Duke is ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll, Allen is a strong contender for player of the year, and Tatum and Harry Giles are expected to be the program's next great freshmen. The best Duke team under Mike Krzyzewski combines NBA lottery picks with veteran leaders, and this one definitely fits the bill.
Curiously, this team didn't really start to develop until Kennard, a five-star second-year recruit, became the team's No. 1 offensive option and became an All-American. The revamp seemed to save Duke's season until it fell apart against a South Carolina team.
Duke couldn't stop the Gamecocks' Sindarius Thornwell in the second half, and all of a season's worth of inadequacies resurfaced.
advertise
5. 2024 Elite Eight, No. 4 Duke vs. No. 11 North Carolina State
Leading scorers: Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain
From an NBA perspective, this is probably the least talented Duke team on this list. The fourth-seeded Blue Devils looked good, despite struggling in Scheer's second year, but eliminated No. 1 Houston in the Sweet 16, setting up what looked like an extremely favorable matchup heading into the Final Four.
NC State only makes the tournament because of an unprecedented ACC Tournament run that included a win over Duke. It's a tall order for the overachieving Wolfpack to win again, right?
Correct?
Duke has had a history of better teams losing in tournaments, but losses like this have only happened a handful of times, and they wouldn't even call them their biggest rivals.
advertise
4. No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 UConn, 2026 Elite Eight
Main scorers: Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans
The No. 1 overall seed was at least polite enough to give us some warning that this March Madness game might not go the way we'd hoped. They needed comebacks to defeat No. 16 seed Siena and No. 5 seed St. John's, with the former becoming the first No. 16 seed to lead by double digits at halftime against the No. 1 seed.
But Duke doesn't need a comeback to beat UConn. It just has to stick with it. Duke led by 19 points in the first half, but Dan Hurley's team kept chasing. But even then, Duke only had to have the ball with 10 seconds left, not… like this.
It was a gut-wrenching collapse. But that wasn't the most embarrassing collapse of the past two years for Duke.
advertise
3. 2019 Elite Eight, No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 Michigan State
Main scorers: Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett
Williamson's NBA career has been rockier than expected, but we can't forget how sensational he was in his lone year at Duke, or that he was only Duke's third-best freshman by some recruiting rankings.
Williamson, Barrett and Cam Reddish gave Duke a top-three recruit in the country and they definitely lived up to the hype (total). That team felt almost inevitable, and then second-seeded Michigan State showed what they were capable of. In one of Tom Izzo's best coaching jobs, the Spartans withstood some inhumane tactics from Williamson to upset the tournament's top seed.
On a missed opportunity basis, this team might be among the best. At least last year's Cooper-Flag Co. team (who were, let's just say, equally talented) made it to the Final Four.
advertise
2. No. 1 Duke vs. No. 1 Houston, 2025 Final Four
Main scorers: Cooper Flagg, Con Knuppel
The best that can be said about last year's loss is that it was a high-quality game, again against a top seed, and with very questionable refereeing.
The rest, well, let's think back to how Duke led by 14 points in that game, The fifth-largest lead in Final Four history was blown awayBy nine o'clock, less than three minutes remained. Flagg seemed to deliver multiple daggers, but Houston just held on and the Blue Devils had absolutely zero offense, making just one field goal in the final 10 minutes.
Duke enters the Final Four as a favorite and only needs a semblance of offense from a team with three projected lottery picks, one of whom may be the best American prospect since Anthony Davis or LeBron James, to reach the championship game against Florida State.
advertise
Instead, it suffered some of the worst losses ever seen by most projects. But not Duke.
1. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 8 North Carolina, 2022 Final Four
Main scorers: Paulo Banchero, Wendell Moore Jr.
Let's face it: Duke could have extended its 50-point lead on Sunday, but it wouldn't be No. 1 on this list.
Facing your biggest rival for the first time in the NCAA tournament, in the Final Four, in your legendary coach's final game – the biggest rival in all of college basketball – and losing to a No. 8 seed in a complete YOLO game with Caleb Love providing the dagger, there was no way back.
It doesn’t matter what Duke does from here on out or how many rings Jon Schell or his successor ends up winning. For the rest of our lives, any Duke fan who publicly reminisces about the great Coach K will have to look back to make sure there isn't a giggly UNC fan reminding them of how it all ended.
advertise
There's nothing better than this.
