Kentucky was going to have wins over both teams in the national championship -- then Duke collapsed

Apr 5, 2025; San Antonio, TX, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward Cooper Flagg (2) reacts after their loss to the Houston Cougars in the semifinals of the men's Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

This was going to be a post talking about how Kentucky beat both teams in the national championship game, starting with Florida to open the night, followed by Duke to close things out. The Gators certainly took care of business, beating Auburn 79-73 to advance to the title game on Monday. Walter Clayton Jr. made history, scoring 34 points with five made 3-pointers to make him the first player since Larry Bird to score 30-plus in back-to-back games this deep in the NCAA Tournament.

Bird did it in the Elite Eight and Final Four with Indiana State in 1979. Now, Clayton has matched that mark, doing it on 11-18 shooting in 35 minutes. His historic performance ended Johni Broome’s career after the fifth-year senior earned SEC Player of the Year honors, going for 15 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

Kentucky defeated Florida to open SEC play on January 4 by a final score of 106-100 — an instant classic inside of Rupp Arena, one of the most memorable performances of Mark Pope’s debut season in Lexington.

Duke was right there to continue that trend, taking a 14-point lead with 8:17 to go while staying up nine with 3:03 on the clock. Cooper Flagg seemed to be writing his storybook finish, sinking two free throws with 1:26 left to go back up seven and push his total up to 27 points with seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals in what was a dominant all-around effort.

Then Houston would close out the game on a 9-0 run in the final 33 seconds to pull off the 70-67 win and advance to the national championship to face Florida. The Cougars finished on a 15-3 run in the final 2:05 while the Blue Devils scored just one field goal in the final 10:30 — an epic collapse for Jon Scheyer’s group, ending with a missed Flagg go-ahead jumper to win with eight seconds left. That would wrap up the all-time comeback for Kelvin Sampson’s squad.

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The Coogs have never won a title. Now, they’ll get that opportunity to bring home the trophy on Monday while Duke goes home very, very sad.

Florida vs. Houston for all of the marbles, folks. Who you got?

Until then, let me leave you with extended highlights of Cooper Flagg’s clutch moments from his time at Duke:

Cooper Flagg 2024-25 crunch time highlights 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/7FgTMUN1p9
— Big Osc (@bosbbn) April 6, 2025

Anthony Davis remains the only freshman in college basketball history to earn National Player of the Year honors while winning a national championship. Sorry, Cooper.