Jay Bilas reacts to stunning Duke collapse in Final Four loss to Houston

Duke losing to Houston in the Final Four was stunning to say the least and Jay Bilas was among those in shock. The ESPN analyst watched the Blue Devils blow a 14-point lead in the second half, failing to get to the national championship game.

Heck, head coach Jon Scheyer was having a difficult time processing the 70-67 loss to the Cougars. Houston will play Florida in Monday night’s final.

As for Duke, the roster will certainly look different next year and Cooper Flagg is off to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. But Bilas explained, at least against this Duke team, Houston did something “extraordinary.”

“Houston’s win over Duke was absolutely extraordinary,” Bilas said in an Instagram post. “Give credit to the Cougars. Relentless is really hard to beat, and tough as nails is really hard to beat. And when they were down 14 in the second half, Houston kept fighting. When they were down seven with a minute, 26, Houston kept fighting. They wouldn’t let Duke inbound the ball. They got steals. Emmanuel Sharp hits a gigantic three after a shot fake and Cooper Flagg flies by. 

“They took advantage of a missed front end of a one and one foul. LJ Cryer knocks down big free throws. Ja’Wan Roberts, a 62% free throw shooter who had 11 rebounds and made maybe the defensive play in the game, putting pressure on Cooper Flagg’s last shot to force him into a fade away too.” 

Bilas tipped his cap to Kelvin Sampson, who finally got Houston to a national championship game. Now one win away from a title, Houston will still remember this game against Duke for quite awhile.

“You got to give great credit to Kelvin Sampson and his Houston Cougars, toughness, relentlessness, that’s a great basketball team,” Bilas said. “And the bottom line is, Houston lives in close games. They have, all year long, four losses, most of them early in the season, but three of those losses were in overtime, and Duke had the largest margin of victory of the season in the country. They didn’t live in close games. 

“And I ultimately think that was the difference, when there was game pressure on both teams at the end. Houston was a little bit better at knowing how to handle that and they handled it all the way to the national championship game where they’ll play Florida because an extraordinary Saturday of basketball with Florida and Houston, headed the championship game.”