The No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils saw their NCAA Tournament run come to an end in the Final Four. Duke lost to No. 1 Houston, 70-67, in San Antonio on Saturday night.
It was a stunning collapse by Duke, which even had a lead in the final minutes before Houston snuck out the win.
Now, Duke heads home after a stellar year with Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel.
After the game, ESPN “College GameDay” host Jay Bilas revealed his thoughts on the thrilling game.
“Houston’s win over Duke in the Final Four was absolutely extraordinary,” Bilas said. “Give credit to the Cougars. Relentless is really hard to beat and tough as nails is really hard to beat.”
“You’ve gotta give great credit to Kelvin Sampson and his Houston Cougars. Toughness. Relentlessness. That’s a great basketball team,” Bilas added.
“The bottom line is Houston lives in close games, they have all year long,” Bilas continued. “Duke had the largest margin of victory of the season in the country. They didn’t live in close games, and I ultimately think that was the difference.”
Houston has four losses all year, each of which has been by single digits and three of which came in overtime.
Lost to Auburn, 74-79
Lost to Alabama, 85-80 (OT)
Lost to San Diego State, 73-70 (OT)
Lost to Texas Tech, 82-81 (OT)
Duke also had two losses earlier in the season, which came against Kentucky (by five) and Kansas (by three). On the other hand, Duke had just one win in the NCAA Tournament by single digits, while Houston beat Gonzaga by five and Purdue by two.
In the end, that proved to be the difference for Bilas, and now, Houston faces Florida in the national title game on Monday night at 8:50 pm ET.
