Jon Scheyer reacts to Duke Final Four collapse vs. Houston: 'It's hard to process'

With 1:26 to go in Saturday’s Final Four game against Houston, Duke held a 66-59 lead. The Blue Devils were on the verge of their first national championship appearance under Jon Scheyer, needing to get to the finish line.

But Houston didn’t go down without a fight, and the Cougars eventually outscored the Blue Devils 11-1 in the final 1:14 to complete a comeback for the ages. Just like that, Duke’s season was over – and Scheyer, speaking with CBS’ Tracy Wolfson afterward, was still dealing with what just unfolded at the Alamodome.

Scheyer pointed out Duke didn’t play many one-score games this season and how that factored into the late collapse. But tough losses are the nature of college basketball, he said, even when the Blue Devils were so close to a title game berth.

“Well, it’s hard to process still,” Scheyer told Wolfson. “I thought our guys did an incredible job the whole game. I thought we had some good looks. Didn’t finish. You have to give Houston a ton of credit. And still, even with that, we had the lead with under a minute to go. I couldn’t be more proud – I’m not about to hang our head. This is part of it.

“You’ve got to handle the wins, and you’ve got to handle the losses, too. And in a moment like this, we were this close. We felt we were the best team. The best team tonight was Houston. Hats off to them.”

As for his postgame message to a locker room that just got stunned by the Houston comeback, Scheyer pointed out the way a young group came together. Although there were transfer portal additions, as well, a group led by freshmen Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel got to college basketball’s biggest stage.

But as he looked back on the final minutes, Jon Scheyer pointed out there were things he could have done better to put his team in position. It’s all part of dealing with the season-ending loss after such a strong season.

“To me, it’s a group that’s done this differently,” Scheyer said. “They’ve come together. A young team, the transfers that have come in, the guys that have come back. I feel we were one of one in terms of the way we put this thing together. It’s been a magical ride. We believed with everything we had that we were going to win a championship here. I feel for them because they’re competitive and they’re going to think about plays. I didn’t help them enough. That’s where my mind goes.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them, though. This is part of it. This is part of it, unfortunately. We haven’t been in a lot of those games. We’ve watched a lot of game situations in practice. Thats’ where I wish I could’ve helped them more. But they played their hearts out. We knew it was going to be a tough game. Just really feel for our guys.”