Did Duke lose to a 15 seed? Exploring the Blue Devils' biggest upset during March Madness

March Madness is named like that for a reason: a team's seeding does not define the kind of success they could have in the postseason.

In the NCAA tournament, anything goes. Not even the most successful hoops programs in the nation are immune to stunning upsets, and that includes the veritable institution that is Duke University.

Among multiple NCAA tournament failures for the Blue Devils, though, perhaps one stings the most for Duke fans:

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Did Duke lose to a 15 seed?

Yes, they did, in the 2012 season. They were the 2-seed going up against the 15-seed Lehigh Mountainhawks in the second round, with almost no one picking Lehigh to win. Everybody reckoned Duke would just walk off with the victory, but they were wrong in every sense of the word.

That year, the Mountainhawks had eventual NBA star CJ McCollum on their squad. But apart from him, they didn't have any other big-name guy to go up against a veritable titan of college hoops.

Four players out of Duke's starting five for that game went to the NBA: brothers Mason and Miles Plumlee, the sweet-shooting Seth Curry and Austin Rivers. Not to mention, the Blue Devils were coached by the legendary Coach K, Mike Krzyzewski. So that's what Lehigh had to go through.

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How 15-seed Lehigh beat 2-seed Duke

The team had more than enough confidence that they could go toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils, and they showed that. They were down by just two points at the half, while the second half was a game of basket trading and runs.

Lehigh eventually pulled away for a big six-point lead, 65-59, with 48.5 seconds left. They had the ball on the possession with a chance to go up by eight or nine. Opting to go for a two, they ran what looked like a football trick play with forward Gabe Knutson, who fooled the Duke defense en route an uncontested dunk on the break. That put Lehigh up by eight, 67-59, with the entire play just using up two full seconds.

Duke had multiple chances but just couldn't score enough in the final moments. They had a 3-pointer and three free throws from Austin Rivers (from a foul at the rainbow line) in the ensuing play.

They went back to their full court press, but McCollum escaped and passed it for another beeline dunk on the fast break for Jordan Hamilton, putting Lehigh up 69-64 with 23.8 seconds remaining. After that, it was too little too late for Coach K and his squad.

The last few seconds were just a veritable parade to the line for the Mountainhawks, en route a 75-70 monumental upset. They became only the 11th 15-seed to knock out a 2-seed and the second in the same tournament, alongside Norfolk State (who beat Missouri, 86-84), as per the NCAA.

CJ McCollum scored 30 points, putting his name up in the big boards for the draft, eventually going the next year to the Portland Trailblazers.