Braylon Mullins’ game-winning 3-pointer sent shockwaves across Capitol One Arena.
Bill Raftery and Grant Hill might’ve been the most stunned of them all.
After Duke’s Cayden Boozer turned the ball over with five seconds left, Mullins’ long-range attempt hit nylon to give the Huskies a 73-72 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
While play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle belted out his call of Mullins’ shot, Raftery sat back in his chair with his mouth gaping open.
Hill, who played at Duke from 1990-94, braced himself with one arm on Eagle and another covering his mouth.
When they finally returned to reality, Raftery could only utter two words.
“Utterly impossible,” he said.
“March means drama,” Eagle followed.
“The deflection, the reaction and then the major onions. They all consume nylon from deep. Astounding,” Raftery added, using his signature phrase.
Then, Hill came to his senses as well.
“Wow, what a play,” he said. “All Duke had to do was hold the ball there. They didn’t need to get rid of it.”
Hill’s right — Boozer could have held onto the ball and Duke probably would’ve won. Instead, he tried to heave the ball to a teammate down the court, which was blocked and intercepted by Mullins.
Despite the last-second gaffe, the Blue Devils’ loss also boils down to second-half mistakes.
Duke led by 15 at halftime and as much as 19 in the game, but UConn clawed back to claim victory and advance to the Final Four.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer cited numerous turnovers besides Boozer’s — including eight in the second half — as a reason for the defeat.
The Blue Devils finished the season at 35-3, dropping those three games by a combined five points.
They lost by one to Texas Tech, three to North Carolina after Seth Trimble’s last-breath triple and one to UConn on Sunday on another final-second shot.
The loss also moved Scheyer’s record as Duke’s head coach to 124-25.
This season’s winning percentage (.921) was his best across his four years leading the program, though his squad has been bounced before the national championship game in all of those campaigns.
And the Blue Devils’ defeat to UConn might’ve been the most shocking of them all. Just look at Raftery and Hill’s reactions.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
