Duke star Cooper Flagg finished his last game in college basketball in disappointing fashion, as the No. 1-seeded Blue Devils lost 70-67 to the No. 1-seeded Houston Cougars in the Final Four on Saturday evening. Flagg tallied 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists, with his last-minute shot falling short.
The Blue Devils led by nine points with three minutes left before the Cougars rallied, embarking a 9-0 run in the final 35 seconds and iced the game when Flagg missed his last-minute jumper.
After the game, a meme from the popular TV show "White Lotus" started trending once again. In the meme, a character from the show, Timothy Ratliff, who's played by Jason Isaacs and is a Duke fan, is shown wearing a Blue Devils T-shirt while holding a gun to his head during a crisis.
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Frank Tramble, Duke Blue Devils vice-president for communications, marketing and public affairs, released a statement on Friday addressing the character from the show wearing the school's merchandise.
“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists,” the statement from Tramble wrote.
Duke coach stunned by Houston's comeback
After winning the ACC Tournament championship in dominant fashion with the talents of Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, the Blue Devils were one of the favorites to win the national championship.
The game against the Houston Cougars looked like a done deal, with the Blue Devils leading by up to 14 points during the second half. During his postgame news conference, Duke coach Jon Scheyer revealed his bewilderment at how the game panned out.
“Well, it’s hard to process still,” Scheyer said. “I thought our guys did an incredible job the whole game. I thought we had some good looks. Didn’t finish. You have to give Houston a ton of credit. And still, even with that, we had the lead with under a minute to go. I couldn’t be more proud – I’m not about to hang our head. This is part of it.
“You’ve got to handle the wins, and you’ve got to handle the losses, too. And in a moment like this, we were this close. We felt we were the best team. The best team tonight was Houston. Hats off to them.”
Despite the harrowing manner of their loss to the Cougars, it was the Blue Devils' first appearance in the Final Four of the Big Dance since legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski's retirement in 2019.
