There’s no good way to process a loss like what Duke dealt with on Sunday night against UConn, and Jon Scheyer sadly learned that the hard way. After Duke saw its season end in the Elite Eight against UConn, blowing a major lead and losing on a 3-point shot with less than a second left off a turnover, it’s easy to see why the comments were what they were.
“I'll just say this, and then if there's not questions, we'll let Cam answer and go. I could not be more disappointed and feeling for our guys, at the same time of just trying to process what happened. I don't have the words. I don't have the words,” Scheyer said.
“What I do know is literally this team, what each individual player went through just to play the game, I've never seen anything like it. What these guys did to have to get ready, their foot injuries, he's (Cameron Boozer) got a black eye, he's playing the whole game. I'm incredibly sorry for these guys that they've got to go through this. This is on us. We're going to be in this together. The year that this guy's had has been absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible. I don't have words other than just how proud I am of these guys and how disappointed we are,” he said, per the Fayetteville Observer.
Scheyer has always taken responsibility in a very impressive way, and there’s something to be said about that. While most are focused on what he hasn’t accomplished yet, losing in the Elite Eight to UConn isn’t as bad as it seems.
Of course, losing how Duke did hurt and it will have to remember that forever, but it was still able to make it to an Elite Eight and were seconds away from advancing to the Final Four.
The result wasn’t what anyone wanted, but Duke was banged up and it likely had an impact on the final game of the season. Losing multiple games that it was winning throughout the year was a concerning sign and it caught up to Duke, but I do think there’s an injury factor here that not enough people are talking about.