Former NBA star Carlos Boozer watched Duke’s NCAA tournament dreams shatter as a proud alum and prouder father.
The top-ranked Blue Devils were on the verge of defeating Houston in the men’s Final Four back in April, holding a nine-point lead with less than three minutes to play in a national semifinal before they came undone with a blur of late-game miscues. After the buzzer, Duke Coach Jon Scheyer and stars Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel stared blankly ahead as they were shuttled through an arena hallway, their dominant 35-4 season abruptly ended before it could produce the program’s sixth national championship.
