College basketball Twitter unites to troll Duke over worst choke job of all time

They had it, until they didn't. The Duke Blue Devils were in complete command of their Final Four matchup against the Houston Cougars with a trip to the National Championship well within their grasp - until they weren't.

This was a six-point Duke lead heading into halftime. This was a 14-point game just about midway into the second half. This was a nine-point game with three minutes remaining. Somehow, the Cougars closed the game out on a 15-3 run to end Duke's magical season and punch their ticket to the National Championship game.

Look, the Cougars, of course, deserve a ton of respect for the way they played down the stretch. They scored when they had to and defended their hearts out. This loss was all on Duke, though, and their collapse was celebrated by all college basketball fans on X.

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While Blue Devils fans are heartbroken, college basketball fans around the country rejoiced watching Duke's shocking collapse.

Just about everything that could've gone wrong for Duke over the last three minutes of the game did. The Cougars were scoring, and when they weren't, they were scoring on their second opportunities or drawing fouls. On the flip side, the Blue Devils went without a field goal in the final three minutes of the game. To make matters worse, they turned the ball over twice over the final 90 seconds of the game, handing Houston extra possessions. If we're being honest, they could've turned the ball over more than twice over that span.

It'd be one thing to see a team completely melt down in an early tournament game. It's another thing entirely to see a Final Four team, especially one as polished (or so we thought) as Duke collapse as they did. There has never been anything like what we just witnessed.

All legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski could do from his seat in the stands was watch as Jon Scheyer's Blue Devils looked as undisciplined as any team in the tournament with a National Championship on the line.

Had Duke simply been able to inbound the ball, the final score of this game might've been different. Their turnover on an inbounds play with 30 seconds to go allowed the Cougars to cut Duke's lead to one point. Their poor inbounds pass in the waning seconds eliminated any semblance of a chance they had at tying the game with a three-pointer.

It wasn't only their inexplicably poor inbounding. Tyrese Proctor missed a key free throw with 20 seconds left, giving Houston a chance to take the lead. They did, and the rest was history.

Show anyone this tweet before the game and they'd say you were lying. The Cougars scored 25 points in eight minutes after managing just 28 points in 20 first-half minutes. They also held Duke to just eight points in those eight minutes after the Blue Devils had 59 points in the first 32 minutes. The Blue Devils kept the door open, and the Cougars barged their way in to steal a trip to the National Championship game.

All we can say at this point is poor Cooper Flagg. Not only was he tagged with a ridiculous foul call down the stretch, but his outstanding game will forever be overshadowed by his team's incredible collapse - and for good reason.

This one is just impossible to explain. You'd have to have seen it to believe it.