After going up by 19 points against the UConn Huskies in their Elite Eight matchup, the Duke Blue Devils looked certain to punch their ticket to the Final Four in Indianapolis. Instead, they blundered repeatedly down the stretch and choked away the game, similar to their loss against Houston last year. Duke stumbling yet again proves just how special the Jayhawks' 2022 run was.
While Kansas has failed to make it past the first weekend of March Madness for four straight years, the 2022 National Championship still helps Jayhawks fans around the world feel sane, regardless of the recent struggles. Duke, on the other hand, has now gone over a decade without winning March Madness themselves. Coming so close in back-to-back years also doesn’t help.
Last year, Duke featured five starters who are now playing in the NBA, including Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, the two leading candidates for Rookie of the Year. They were truly as stacked as you could possibly get with young and upcoming talent, making the 14-point choke job against Houston hurt even more.
Fast-forward to this year and Duke once again had a huge lead and their roster consisted of a future top-three pick in the NBA in Cam Boozer, along with a group of other future NBA players. Despite this, Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils did the reverse-2022 National Championship Jayhawks, and blew a huge lead, topped off by one of the most iconic shots in March Madness history.
The 2022 Jayhawks took care of business, something Duke could not do
Flashback to 2022, both Kansas and Duke were highly seeded in March Madness and made the Final Four. In what seemed like a likely National Championship matchup between Bill Self and Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina had other ideas and toppled Duke to play Kansas instead. On paper, Duke was a better team with Paolo Banchero and Mark Williams, among others.
Meanwhile, Kansas featured much more experience with seniors Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack, and Remy Martin, as well as Christian Braun, who was a junior. This core, along with Jalen Wilson, Dajuan Harris Jr., and MItch Lightfoot, played amazing basketball in crunch time of close games, something that Duke teams recently have been lacking.
The Jayhawks won several close games throughout the tournament, including a 79-72 win over Creighton, a 66-61 win over Providence, and, of course, the 72-69 massive comeback win over North Carolina in the National Championship. That KU squad truly had the special sauce that year and showcased just how special a team needs to be in order to win 6 games in a row in March Madness.
Duke proved this in the last two seasons as well. Winning a National Championship in a single-elimination tournament is incredibly difficult and despite having all the blue-blooded talent a program can buy with NIL, if your team lacks the mental fortitude in crunch time, the experience, and ultimately that special sauce, you can easily fall short of securing the title.
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