Duke guard Cayden Boozer sits in the locker room after their Elite Eight game of the NCAA college basketball tournament against UConn, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
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At 8:10 pm on Sunday, Duke guard Cayden Boozer sat on a chair at his locker stall, still in uniform and with tears in his eyes. Fellow freshmen Nikolas Khamenia and Dame Sarr stopped by to console Boozer, whose errant pass led to Duke’s season ending in stunning fashion.
With Duke leading UConn by two points and about six seconds remaining, Boozer tried to get the ball to Isaiah Evans, the team’s best free throw shooter. But UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. deflected the pass, and Braylon Mullins made a 40-footer with less than a second left to give the Huskies an improbable 73-72 victory in the NCAA tournament East Region final at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Duke had been up by 19 points in the first half and 15 at halftime and hadn’t trailed since they were down 2-0. But the Blue Devils somehow lost, the second consecutive season they were a No. 1 seed, had the consensus national player of the year and blew a double-digit lead in the NCAA tournament.
A year ago, a team led by freshman forward Cooper Flagg surrendered a 14-point second half advantage and lost to Houston in the Final Four. Sunday’s defeat may have been even more surprising considering Cayden and his twin brother, Cameron, the nation’s best player, rarely lose. No tandem had been more successful in high school, and the winning continued in college.
The Boozers won four state championships at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami and three consecutive Nike EYBL Peach Jam summer titles. They were also on the U.S. teams that won the 2023 FIBA Americas U16 Championship and the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup. And they were members on the U.S. team that won the Nike Hoop Summit last April.
The last time the Boozer twins lost in a tournament before Sunday? As juniors in high school in April 2024, Christopher Columbus lost 84-70 in the Chipotle high school national semifinals to Montverde Academy, which featured Flagg. Flagg finished with 28 points, while Cameron Boozer had a game-high 29 points and seven rebounds. Christopher Columbus avenged that defeat last year, winning the Chipotle nationals over Dynamic Prep from Texas.
Before Sunday, Duke (35-3) had won 14 consecutive games, captured the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles and lost only twice, falling by one point to Texas Tech on Dec. 20 at Madison Square Garden and by three points at North Carolina on Feb. 7. Cameron Boozer didn’t take those defeats lightly.
“I didn’t really like that,” he said Saturday.
On Sunday, the Boozers were the best Duke players on the floor. Cameron had 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Cayden had 15 points, six assists and five rebounds. Still, they each made crucial mistakes down the stretch, with Cameron turning the ball over with 1:05 remaining and Cayden making the errant pass that led to the game-winning shot.
“I could’ve taken my time,” Cayden said.
Said Cameron: “I think as a whole we could have gave a lot more in the second half. We came out a little flat and gave them a little bit of life. When you’re playing a team as good as UConn, that’s all they really need.”
Carlos Boozer, the twins’ father and a former Duke star power forward, can relate to what his sons experienced. One year after Boozer helped Duke win the 2001 national championship, the Blue Devils returned four starters and were a No. 1 seed in the South Region.
In the 2002 Sweet 16, they lost 74-73 to No. 5 seed Indiana, blowing a 17-point lead. Boozer finished with a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds, but he couldn’t convert on an offensive rebound putback with about three seconds remaining in what was his last college game. That June, Boozer was a second-round pick (No. 35 overall) in the NBA draft. He spent 13 seasons in the NBA before retiring in 2015.
Cameron Boozer will likely follow in his father’s footsteps in the coming months. He is a projected top three pick in June’s NBA draft and the most productive player in college basketball. He averaged 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, becoming the first freshman or sophomore since Larry Bird in the 1976-77 season to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, per CBS Sports research. And his 2.942 rating, per analyst Ken Pomeroy, is the highest since Pomeroy began tracking the statistic in the 1996-97 season.
Cayden Boozer, meanwhile, is likely to return to Duke. The 6-foot-4 point guard isn’t projected as a draft pick this June, so it makes sense for him to play another year in college, earn a significant amount of money via revenue sharing and Name, Image and Likeness deals and improve to help his draft stock.
Next season, Duke should be among the top teams in the nation, as it always is under Jon Scheyer, who just completed his fourth season as head coach. Scheyer faced a tall task in replacing Mike Krzyzewski, a Hall of Famer who led Duke to five national titles and completed his career in 2022 as the winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball history.
Scheyer has a 124-25 record, a higher winning percentage than Krzyzewski achieved in his 42 seasons at Duke. No Division I coach has ever won more games in their first four seasons than Scheyer, who is 38 years old. Still, he has experienced heartbreaking NCAA tournament losses, including falling to No. 11 seed North Carolina State in the 2023 Elite Eight and blowing leads the past two seasons against Houston and UConn. Before Sunday, No. 1 seeds were 134-0 when ahead by 15 points or more at halftime in the NCAA tournament.
Cameron Boozer and other Duke players are expected to head to the NBA, but the Blue Devils should have some returners and add players via the transfer portal. They will also welcome three freshmen ranked in the top 12 of their high school class in power forward Cameron Williams (No. 2 in the 247Sports Composite) and guards Derron Rippey Jr. (No. 10) and Bryson Howard (No. 12). Still, Sunday’s loss will linger.
“There’s not a person in this room, including me, that doesn’t replay everything that you could do and how you can help,” Scheyer said. “That’s part of being in this seat. That’s part of being in this spot…End of the day, we’ve got to finish it off. We’ll reflect. We’ll learn.”
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