The Duke Blue Devils were defeated by the Houston Cougars over the weekend in the Final Four, marking the end of Jon Scheyer’s first deep tournament run as head coach. This loss likely signals the end of the road at Duke for standout freshmen Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach — and potentially for point guard Tyrese Proctor as well. Duke’s lack of experience showed in the final moments, which ultimately cost them the game. CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish suggested Scheyer recognized this was his last time coaching this group together.
“This was it for this team. In college basketball, you usually get just one shot with a group like this… You could see it on Jon Scheyer’s face — he knew this one slipped away,” Parrish said.
Scheyer was visibly emotional in the postgame press conference, understandably so given how narrowly his team missed reaching the national title game.
“I couldn’t be more proud… I’m not going to hang our heads. This is part of the journey. You have to take the wins and the losses,” Scheyer said. “We were right there. We really believed we were the best team — but Houston was the better team tonight. Credit to them.”
Looking ahead, Duke is already projected as the No. 1 team in The Sporting News way-too-early top 25 rankings, thanks to another loaded recruiting class. But this particular Blue Devils squad was something special, and that emotion came through when Scheyer fought back tears while addressing his players.
“I’m heartbroken for these guys… this was our first loss at full strength since November,” he told students.
