Duke's March Madness run ended on Saturday at the Final Four, and what an ending it was. Despite the best efforts of Cooper Flagg, the Blue Devils blew a double-digit lead against Houston and crashed out of their most promising NCAA tournament run in years.
It was a painful loss, but it has company in Duke's oeuvre of mortifying March Madness exits. This is a very proud program that has seen some of the best NBA prospects of the last decade come through its doors, with no title to show for it since they won it all in 2015 under Mike Krzyzewski.
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 NCAA tournament losses in the past 10 title-less years. It's worth noting the Blue Devils didn't make the tournament in 2021 when they were 13-11 and had no tournament to play in for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three of its losses (2016, 2018, 2023) were also as lower seeds and therefore not included.
5. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 South Carolina, 2017 second round
Leading scorers: Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard
Tatum, Kennard and Grayson Allen have gone on to enjoy successful NBA careers, but their time together in college was less than the sum of its parts.
Duke was ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll with Allen as a National Player of the Year contender and Tatum and Harry Giles looming as the program's next great freshmen. The best Duke teams under Mike Krzyzewski combined NBA lottery-bound freshmen and veteran leaders, and this one definitely fit the bill.
It was curious, then, that this team didn't really get going until Kennard, a five-star recruit in his sophomore year, stepped up as the team's first option on offense and became an All-American. That reworking seemed to save Duke's season, until it fell apart against a South Carolina team ready for everything they had.