Dan Patrick points to Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel's inexperience as key reason behind meltdown vs Houston

Sportscaster Dan Patrick on Monday talked about the key reason Duke lost to Houston as Cooper Flagg and his teammates collapsed late in its Final Four defeat on Saturday.

Duke was one minute away from playing in the national championship game, holding a six-point lead at that point. However, the Blue Devils suffered a meltdown with 35 seconds left, as Houston scored nine points within that period to win 70-67, breaking the Blue Devils' hearts.

Everything appeared to be working against Jon Scheyer's team at that point of the game, as Flagg missed a go-ahead shot, while the referee also called what some fans deemed a soft foul against the AP and Naismith player of the year.

However, Patrick pointed to the team’s inexperience as the major factor for the collapse.

"Freshmen can act like freshmen, I don't care how talented you are. And they acted like freshmen late in that game," the former ESPN "SportsCenter" host said on "The Dan Patrick Show."

The Blue Devils had six freshmen: Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Isaiah Evans, Patrick Ngongba, Darren Harris and Khaman Maluach.

Flagg, Knueppel and Maluach all played significant minutes in the loss to Houston and have been mainstays for highly ranked Duke this season.

They were projected by many to become the national champions, reflected in the Blue Devils earning the overall No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

The team won the ACC regular-season and tournament titles and was looking to do a clean sweep, with a view of ending the program’s decade-long wait for a national title.

Dan Patrick believes bluebloods are affecting Cinderella runs

Legendary broadcaster Dan Patrick insists that programs with a long history of success and national prominence are the reasons fairy-tale runs have become scarce in college basketball.

The big programs take the best players from the smaller programs, taking them from the transfer portal, handing them an unfair advantage, according to Patrick.

"I think that blue bloods are stealing the midmajors' ability to be a Cinderella. They’re already swooping in and getting these players, and they smartly go after a few big-time freshmen (in recruiting) and build their roster from there," Patrick said on Friday’s episode of "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich."

The transfer portal was introduced in 2018, allowing players to change programs without having to miss a year after the transfer. The 2025 transfer portal opened on March 24 and is set to close on April 22.