Favorite Duke Loss | The Boneyard

Favorite Duke Loss

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Cballman82

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What is everyone’s favorite Duke Loss?

When Duke loses, America wins

UConn related

My ranking

1. 1999- first title, Duke thinking it was their coronation. 11 players play, Moore gets the stop UConn wins as the largest underdog in title game history

2. 2026- Mullins bomb coming back from 19 down makes up for 1990

3. 2004- 8 back with 3:15 remaining BUT we were the favorite and more talented and blew a 15-4 lead. We dodged a bullet that night

Non UConn

My top 5

1. 1990 UNLV their buzzer beater of UConn gets followed up with a 30 point title game loss where they looked like a high school team

2. 2019-SFA regular season at home . Buzzer beater at Cameron that the refs couldn’t stop

3. 2022-UNC ends coach Ks career.

4. 2012 Lehigh. Duke losing to a 15 seed was the greatest tourney upset to that point

5. 2002 Indiana- blowing a 17 pt lead at Rupp, dick emberg on the call, having a chance to win it at the end on a 4 point play missed free throw missed put back

Honorable mentions/options

2025 Houston- blows a 14 point lead to an offense no one trusts
1994- blows 10 pt lead to Arkansas in Charlotte NC in the title game
2014 Mercer- 14 seed and UConn wins title
2011 Arizona- Derek Williams feasts inside and UConn wins title
2007 VCU-the dagger- we missed the post season, Duke losing round 1 for the first time since 1996 softened the blow
2005 at UNC- blowing a 9 point lead final 5 minutes leads to possibly the greatest crowd reaction ever on the Marvin Williams put back
1998-blows 18 pt lead to Kentucky at Tropicana field in the elite 8
2002 at Maryland- Blake’s steal on Williams at Cole field house gets revenge for the miracle minute the year before
2000 Florida- Ends a 26 game win streak in the east region

Any others that you think belong at the top?
 
Wow, kudos for listing these all out lol.

Not really sure anything can make up for 90, but it is what it is. It took 9 more years to make the FF.

Houston has got to be higher on that list just for the sheer mathematical improbability of that comeback. SJ and HOU are two of the only teams that can comeback like that based on a lot of turnovers.
 
Thanks for taking the time to post this...what a fantastic way to start the week. With that said, my vote is '99 with The Mullins Miracle a close 2nd.

College Basketball GIF by NCAA March Madness
 
6in25 said:
Thanks for taking the time to post this...what a fantastic way to start the week. With that said, my vote is '99 with The Mullins Miracle a close 2nd.

College Basketball GIF by NCAA March Madness
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Yup you can never forget your 1st, so 99 will always win by default no matter what happens ever.

And of course the Mullins Miracle.
 
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If we weren't the opponent, I could care less, with the exception of the game where a mid-major exposed their flopping to get a charge call.

I don’t recall the opponent, and it may have even been a Duke win, but I still enjoyed them getting exposed.
 
One thing I was struck by is the lack of a UVA win on this list. Outside of UNC I think most Duke fans would consider UVA to be their greatest rival. They have also had several elite runs over the last 40 years and so I was a bit surprised not to have any of their games come to mind
 
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Yeah, those top three are tough to split hairs with- but you gotta figure 99 takes the cake. Duke was killing everybody that year and we were 10 point underdogs going in. Trajon Langdon travels then falls down as Ricky Moore locks him up on the final two possessions. 04 was insane as week down 9 with 3 mins to go and the Mullins shot. Probably safe to say we’ve given Duke their three worse losses in their history.
 
2004.

Those first 2 fouls on Emeka in the first 3 minutes were ridiculously bad.

It would have been a sin if the greatest UConn team of all-time did not make the final and win the championship.

No way Duke should've been surprised at the Duke comeback, and to top it off, Coach K. was furious when a hack on Reddick wasn't called in the final minute -- even though Duke should've never been in the position for a possible win in the first place.
 
San Antonio 2004 Final Four

When a timeout was called and they were up 8 with three minutes to go, Dookies next to us were going crazy and my buddy said "I wish we were them right now"

I pointed to the entire team being at center court, obviously K that to happen, and I said "they're celebrating too early"

Less then 1 minute later they couldn't breath. They thought they already won the game, and that was the biggest choke job I ever witnessed. I was there

Jumping around the house with my daughter and grandchildren after Braylin's shot was pretty damn special

How can anyone forget their first time?

All three of our end of their season wins were pretty special

Outside of that, maybe Cooper Flaggs defeat since we were in the mix AND they were pre anointed. I love watching pre anointed teams go down. Remember Squid's UK squad and their 39-0 T-Shirts? That was special. Those shirts are still selling in Nigeria
 
Cballman82 said:
What is everyone’s favorite Duke Loss?

When Duke loses, America wins

UConn related

My ranking

1. 1999- first title, Duke thinking it was their coronation. 11 players play, Moore gets the stop UConn wins as the largest underdog in title game history

2. 2026- Mullins bomb coming back from 19 down makes up for 1990

3. 2004- 8 back with 3:15 remaining BUT we were the favorite and more talented and blew a 15-4 lead. We dodged a bullet that night

Non UConn

My top 5

1. 1990 UNLV their buzzer beater of UConn gets followed up with a 30 point title game loss where they looked like a high school team

2. 2019-SFA regular season at home . Buzzer beater at Cameron that the refs couldn’t stop

3. 2022-UNC ends coach Ks career.

4. 2012 Lehigh. Duke losing to a 15 seed was the greatest tourney upset to that point

5. 2002 Indiana- blowing a 17 pt lead at Rupp, dick emberg on the call, having a chance to win it at the end on a 4 point play missed free throw missed put back

Honorable mentions/options

2025 Houston- blows a 14 point lead to an offense no one trusts
1994- blows 10 pt lead to Arkansas in Charlotte NC in the title game
2014 Mercer- 14 seed and UConn wins title
2011 Arizona- Derek Williams feasts inside and UConn wins title
2007 VCU-the dagger- we missed the post season, Duke losing round 1 for the first time since 1996 softened the blow
2005 at UNC- blowing a 9 point lead final 5 minutes leads to possibly the greatest crowd reaction ever on the Marvin Williams put back
1998-blows 18 pt lead to Kentucky at Tropicana field in the elite 8
2002 at Maryland- Blake’s steal on Williams at Cole field house gets revenge for the miracle minute the year before
2000 Florida- Ends a 26 game win streak in the east region
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Yes.
 
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Big picture for me is that UCONN defeated Duke to arguably prevent them from having 9 NCAA’s championship right now. For that, UCONN should get much appreciation from the wide anti-Duke MCBB universe……UNC for sure
 
Scoe said:
Any that involve losing to UConn obviously.
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This is the best. A league that has stood on its head to avoid taking us as a member because we’re not good enough to share revenue with just saw us beat its football champion and its basketball champion in the same season.
 
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Inyatkin said:
Another contender -- 24 in the tournament to NC State. That'd be like us having title hopes and losing to DePaul in the tournament
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What made that NC State loss even more beautiful is they also upset them in the ACC tourney quarterfinals. So Scheyer had tape of the loss from two weeks prior and was still unable to make the adjustments to avoid being upset by them again.
 
Honestly every time I see the scoreboard and see that Duke lost I get a nice hit of dopamine. Also dopamine from crying duke fans who meltdown on their forum. I always hated Duke since my first experience with Duke was when Laettner hit that buzzer beater in 90. It was indeed very satisfying when they took belt to ass from UNLV in the finals. Huge dopamine hits before I knew what dopamine even was
 
PNolanFan said:
One thing I was struck by is the lack of a UVA win on this list. Outside of UNC I think most Duke fans would consider UVA to be their greatest rival. They have also had several elite runs over the last 40 years and so I was a bit surprised not to have any of their games come to mind
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Duke has dominated the series 86-37 so I don’t think they think much of UVA other than being a dormat. Duke and UNC have completely dominated the ACC forever. Occasionally there is a good team here or there but no team in ACC has been consistently good enough to be a rival of those two programs
 
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Coach K’s family is in some hot water today, apropos of this conversation. Tragic story though.
 
Mr. French said:
Coach K’s family is in some hot water today, apropos of this conversation. Tragic story though.
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Had to look it up, his brother got 12 months probation for the DUI a few years ago. But this is much worse. A death DUI should involve significant prison time.
 
Mr. French said:
Coach K’s family is in some hot water today, apropos of this conversation. Tragic story though.
Expand ...
jibsey said:
Had to look it up, his brother got 12 months probation for the DUI a few years ago. But this is much worse. A death DUI should involve significant prison time.
Expand ...

Just a horrendous story.
 
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