Cooper Flagg, Duke left devastated after dream season turns into nightmare with stunning Final Four collapse

SAN ANTONIO — Eyes determined, knees bent, Cooper Flagg held the ball on the wing and waited for the ideal moment to attack.

He had one chance to erase a one-point deficit, one chance to preserve Duke’s flickering title hopes, one chance to erase the memory of a stunning late-game collapse.

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At first, Flagg drove left and got Houston’s J’Wan Roberts on his hip, but a help defender stepped into his path. Flagg then backed Roberts down, turned over his left shoulder and used his off hand to create some space. The short pull-up jumper that Flagg attempted is one that he has hit dozens of times this season. This time, he clanked it off the front rim, sending the Houston fans in the Alamodome into a state of red delirium and leaving his star-laden Duke team shattered and shell-shocked.

When asked to describe that sequence after Duke’s 70-67 Final Four loss, Flagg said that the Blue Devils executed the play head coach Jon Scheyer drew up.

“Took it into the paint, thought I got my feet set, rose up,” Flagg said. “Left it short obviously, but it’s a shot I’m willing to live with in that scenario.”

Outside Duke’s locker room, Scheyer offered similar thoughts.

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“For the rest of my life, I'll have no regrets with No. 2 with the ball six feet from the basket,” he said.

When Duke looks back on the loss that extinguished its national title hopes, it won’t be Flagg’s miss that reverberates through their minds. They’ll blame the flurry of mistakes that allowed Houston to relentlessly scratch its way back from deficits of 59-45 with 8:17 left, 64-55 with 3:03 left and 67-61 with less than a minute to go.

It started innocently enough, a blown box-out here, a sloppy turnover there. Houston kicked open the door a little further with a key defensive stop after Kelvin Sampson bravely chose not to foul while still down six. Then Flagg and Sion James made a pivotal mistake. They miscommunicated on how to defend a ball screen on Houston’s ensuing possession, leaving Emanuel Sharp wide open for a right-wing 3-pointer that cut the deficit to three with 33 seconds remaining.

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“Once we hit that 3, now there’s game pressure,” Sampson said.

And the Blue Devils, accustomed to being ahead by 20-plus for so much of this season, did not respond well to it.

Sampson put JoJo Tugler on the ball on the ensuing inbound pass, hoping that the sophomore could use his 7-foot-6 wingspan to force a turnover. Sampson swears that Houston should have gotten a five-second call before a Duke timeout, except “the referee was counting so slow.”

Not to be denied, Houston got the turnover it needed anyway. Mylik Wilson knocked away Sion James’ floating inbound pass intended for Flagg. Seconds later, Houston was within one on Tugler’s put-back dunk.

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While Duke did get the ball inbounded the next time, it only got worse from there. Not only did Tyrese Proctor miss the front end of a 1-and-1, Flagg was whistled for a controversial over-the-back foul while trying to tip the rebound away from Roberts.

That sent to the foul line a fifth-year senior who made 51.1% of his free throws last season but has worked tirelessly to improve since then. Roberts says he has shot up to 150 free throws a night in preparation for moments like the one he found himself in Saturday night.

Roberts stepped confidently to the free throw line.

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Roberts gestured for the crowd to be quiet and stepped back to the foul line.

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Said Roberts later, “To tell you the honest truth, going up to the free-throw line, I wasn't really nervous at all just 'cause of the work that I’d put in.”

Only minutes earlier, this Final Four appeared likely to end in a Duke coronation. Flagg would be hailed as a worthy national player of the year and an all-time great one-and-done talent. Scheyer would get his flowers for seamlessly succeeding Mike Krzyzewski. Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach and Tyrese Proctor would all leave Duke as legends who played key roles on a title-winning team.

When Roberts sank both free throws, those dreams began to flicker. Duke was down one, a dominant 35-win season reduced to a single play.

Scheyer called timeout, as if there was any question where the ball was going. It was always going to be in the hands of Flagg, the presumptive No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, the phenom who led Duke in almost every major statistical category this season, the guy who had helped the Blue Devils build their lead against Houston by scoring a game-high 27 points.

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“Everybody knew who was going to get it,” Sampson said. “[J'Wan Roberts], I thought he did an awesome job of getting his hands up high enough that it wasn't an easy look.”

Seconds after the miss, Flagg retreated to mid-court and clapped his hands in disgust. Then he pantomimed the pull-up jumper, as if hoping against hope for a do-over.

It never came.

Houston hit two free throws. Duke’s last-gasp final possession resulted in a Tyrese Proctor wayward heave. And Flagg left the floor devastated as Houston players celebrated in the background.

“Frankly, we did what we wanted to do,” Scheyer said. “I thought our guys followed the game plan, controlled the game, we had the lead for 35 minutes, winning by six with [1:15] to go.”

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Asked to sum up the season, Flagg answered with tears in his eyes.

“Didn't end the way we wanted it to,” he said, “but still an incredible year.”