It would be foolish to overreact too much to Duke’s stunning collapse in Sunday’s Elite Eight loss to UConn. After all, the Blue Devils are 70-7 over the last two seasons. No matter how excruciating the 2025 and 2026 NCAA tournament losses, they’ve been a product of bad luck as much as anything else.
That’s the way it is in the NCAA Tournament. It only takes a bad bounce or two to end your season. No matter how good you are.
There’s been a lot of talk in the aftermath of Duke’s stunning defeat that Jon Scheyer may need to change his roster-building philosophy. In this era, relying on freshmen and sophomores to lead the charge might not be the way. Not in the Transfer Portal era when 22 and 23-year-olds are frequently sticking around…