Duke’s stream of long, tall NBA-ready standouts smothered Alabama and papered over Cooper Flagg’s rough shooting night to lift the Blue Devils to the program’s 18th Final Four with an 85-65 victory Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region final.
Flagg made only 6 of 16 shots, including a brick that got stuck in the flange of the rim, but still finished with 16 points. Kon Knueppel, another potential lottery pick, led the Blue Devils with 21 points.
But the most important stat: Alabama’s nation-leading offense, one coming off a record-setting night from three in the Sweet 16, failed to crack 70 points for only the second time this season.
The Crimson Tide’s 35.4% shooting from the floor was their worst all season and their 25% from behind the arc (8 for 32) matched their fourth-worst showing of 2024-25.
Mark Sears, who came one short of a tournament record with 10 threes two nights earlier, finished with one and only six points against the Blue Devils (35-3), who won their 15th straight.
At the Final Four in San Antonio, top-seeded Duke will play the winner of Sunday’s game between Houston and Tennessee. Their win erased any chance of an all-Southeastern Conference show at the Final Four, but with No 1 Florida winning earlier, they kept alive the prospect of all four top seeds playing on the sport’s biggest stage for only the second time.
Khaman Maluach scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Duke shot 53.6% despite its best player’s rough night.
Flagg was hardly bad in this one. He had nine rebounds, three assists and one mega-block that sent Mouhammed Dioubate’s floater flying over press row.
But in a game in which both teams were focused on taking away the other’s best player, it was Duke that did it more effectively, switching off on Sears, locking down the perimeter and never letting him find breathing room.
The fifth-year senior’s first bucket of any kind came nearly 18 minutes into the game and the shot was a 16-footer from the elbow – the exact kind of midrange shot Nate Oats’ team of dunkers and three-point specialists avoids.
Sears’ first three came with 16:19 left in the game. His final line: 2 for 12 from the floor, 1 for 5 from three. He also had six assists. Labaron Philon led the second-seeded Crimson Tide (28-9) with 16 points. Not a single Alabama player made more shots than he missed.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer, leading the program to the Final Four for the first time since his predecessor Mike Krzyzewski’s last season in 2022, has up to six NBA prospects on his roster.
They all chipped in on offense – Tyrese Proctor had 17 points – and even moreso on defense, where Alabama looked nothing like the team that set tournament records for makes and attempts by going 25 for 51 from 3 against BYU.
The only other Final Four to feature all No 1 seeds was in 2008 when Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and North Carolina made it. The site: San Antonio.
It wasn’t a totally lost night for Tide fans. Shortly before tipoff, the Alabama women’s wheelchair hoops team beat Texas-Arlington 67-52 for their fifth straight national championship.
Florida 84, Texas Tech 79
Coach Todd Golden cut the final strand of the net, waved it to the crowd and performed the famed Gator Chomp.
A celebration that seemed completely improbable just a few minutes earlier was in high gear. Florida are heading back to the Final Four.
Walter Clayton Jr rescued top-seeded Florida with two late thre-pointers, and the Gators rallied from nine points down late to beat Texas Tech 84-79 in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final on Saturday.
“It goes to show how together we all are,” Clayton said. “Many times could easily just break, start pointing the finger, blaming each other for this and that. But we just stayed together through the end and stayed the course. And thankfully we got it done today.”
The Gators (34-4) trailed 75-66 with less than three minutes to play before staging a furious rally against the third-seeded Red Raiders (28-9), who had done the same in the Sweet 16 against Arkansas.
Clayton dribbled out of the paint and hit a fadeaway three with 59 seconds left to give Florida a 78-77 lead, and the Gators held on from there to advance to their first Final Four since 2014 in Golden’s third season. Florida will face the South Region champion – either Auburn or Michigan State – next Saturday in San Antonio.
“There’s not another player in America you would rather have right now than Walter Clayton with the ball in his hands in a big-time moment,” Golden said. “The biggest thing in those moments is you need to have somebody that wants to take those shots. They’re obviously difficult plays, but someone that has the confidence to step up and make incredible individual plays. Walter did that for us tonight.”
The comeback provided a happy ending to Golden’s return to the Bay Area, where he played in college at Saint Mary’s and got his start as a head coach at San Francisco.
As the final horn sounded, Golden turned to the Gators fans and demonstrably pumped his fist as his players rushed out to the court to celebrate.
“It’s crazy,” forward Thomas Haugh said. “I feel like I’m dreaming. I was watching the round of 64 in the eighth grade sneaking my phone into science class watching it. Now to say I’m playing in the Final Four is wild. It’s wild.”
Clayton, who began his college career at Iona, scored 30 points to lead the Gators. Thomas Haugh added 20 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, including the two 3-pointers that started the comeback.
Clayton then tied it with his shot from long range after Texas Tech missed a second straight front end of a one-and-one as Golden called for the Gators to foul early to prolong the game.
“It was a calculated decision we had to make at that point where we needed to get more possessions in the game and it worked out well for us,” Golden said.
After Darrius Williams scored down low for Texas Tech, Clayton’s last three put Florida ahead to stay, and the Gators sealed it at the foul line.
Williams missed two threes late. He had sank the game-tying basket late in regulation and game-winner in the closing seconds of overtime against Arkansas on Thursday night.
“I wish I could change a few plays that happened,” Williams said. “But can’t go back and do that. I thought we could win until it hit zero.”
Texas Tech fell just short of their second Final Four trip ever after being on the wrong side of a late-game comeback. The Red Raiders rallied from 13 points in the final five minutes to beat the Razorbacks in the Sweet 16.
Williams scored 23 points to lead Texas Tech and JT Toppin added 20.
