Duke's soul-crushing 2025 Final Four loss on Saturday in San Antonio stands as one of the most shocking collapses in college basketball history.
Trying to blame one thing feels wrong, as it was just a monumental, cumulative failure for the team as much as it was a stellar showing for Houston when all hope seemed lost.
Well, ESPN analyst and former Duke player and assistant Jay Bilas has found a culprit for the defeat, and it's ... the ACC. Wait... what?
Ahead of Monday night's national title game between Houston and Florida, Bilas pointed a finger at the lack of competitive games in conference play as a reason for Duke's unexpected blown lead.
"I thought the biggest factor in the game was the fact that Duke was inexperienced in close games," Bilas said during ESPN pregame coverage. "And that's where I felt the ACC really let 'em down. Everybody else in this Final Four had played games that came down to the wire day after day and game after game."
Jay Bilas on Duke-Houston: "I thought the biggest factor in the game was the fact that Duke was inexperienced in close games. And that's where I felt the ACC really let 'em down. Everybody else in this Final Four had played games that came down to the wire day after day..." pic.twitter.com/o40j5Np7Bq
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 7, 2025
While it can be factually true that Duke didn't play in a lot of close conference games this past season, the whole "let them down" concept is really ludicrous.
It's not and never will be the conference's responsibility to serve as a sharpening board for a legacy program, and Bilas is ... y'know ... just a bit biased and probably doesn't want to fully blame his alma mater directly for the loss.
Duke lost Saturday's game to Houston because the entire operation collapsed in crunch time. For a team as absurdly talented as Duke is, you should be able to maintain your composure with a lead even if you haven't been asked to do it a lot. Sure, experience helps, but the lack of it isn't why you lost.
This might work for Bilas, but it probably won't work for most anybody else.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jay Bilas inexplicably blamed Duke's Final Four collapse on the ACC
