Here is a complete transcript and video from No. 1 Duke’s press conference, with Coach Jon Scheyer and Cameron Boozer, after the Blue Devils blew a 19-point lead and suffered a season-ending 73–72 loss to UConn in the East Regional final in Washington.
JON SCHEYER: 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.
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 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.
Q. Looking at tonight’s game, it’s a tough loss. I want to know what do you think you did well tonight, and where do you feel you could have been better tonight, with tonight’s game?
CAMERON BOOZER: I think we fought hard. We gave a lot, but I think as a whole we could have gave a lot more in the second half. We came out a little flat and gave them a little bit of life.
When you’re playing a team as good as UConn, that’s all they really need.
Q. Cam, you heard your coach talk about how you’re going to go through this together. What has it meant to be led by Jon Scheyer and just what you can say to his leadership and maybe what he said after the game?
CAMERON BOOZER: Honestly this whole year has been a huge blessing. I mean, I came here, and I learned so much from our players — not just from the coaches, our whole players. We’re just such a connected group. I love those guys. We worked so hard all year.
Then just the coaches, we had a group of — they had five guys leave. We had five freshmen come in. We had five guys return. Just the way they coached us, they brought us together, taught us to fight, taught us to play together. I learned so much this year. I’m never going to take it for granted.
Yeah, I’m just super thankful for it all. I’m hurting right now. We’re all hurting. I wish I could have gave more for those guys, Caleb [Foster], Pat [Ngonba], and Maliq [Brown]. Everyone’s hurting, dealing with injuries, coming and playing. It took a lot of heart. It took a lot of balls to do that.
I’m just proud of them, proud of our team.
Q. Jon, can you walk us through the final possession, what you saw, if you considered calling timeout, if you wanted them to hold it. What was going through your mind on that last possession?
JON SCHEYER: Yeah, we just have to secure it, right? We got it. They had a foul. I was ready for a timeout. We’ve just got to hold on.
It’s easy to look at that play — I look at every play that happened, especially in that second half, this is not about one play. It’s about every play that put us in that position, and that’s what you don’t want to do, where one play something could happen.
For me, look, it’s going to be tough, but it’s not going to be on one play.
Q. You mentioned the second half. I think eight turnovers in the second half, including, I think, Isaiah slipped on one, Cam had one, a couple of live ball turnovers. How much was that contributing to fueling their comeback?
JON SCHEYER: Of course. We just gave them easy baskets. We just had to secure the ball better, and that’s a recipe to put yourself in that position. That was the big difference in the game obviously.
Q. Coach, do you think there was anything positive that you could have done in the second half? Because I know you had, I believe, a 15-point lead going into the second half. Is there anything that you think you could have done differently?
JON SCHEYER: There’s not a person in this room, including me, that doesn’t replay everything that you could do and how you can help. I mean, obviously. That’s part of being in this seat. That’s part of being in this spot. That’s what — of course.
End of the day, we’ve got to finish it off. We’ll reflect. We’ll learn, do all that. But yeah, of course.
Subscribe to read Tar Heel Tribune ad-free
Subscribe for a cleaner, smoother reading experience without the flashing banners, slow-loading elements, or those especially annoying pop‑up ads that interrupt the flow of the story. You’ll also get the first version of each story emailed to you. The only ads you’ll see are static, non-intrusive ads for UNC‑related books, and there are none currently on the site.
Photo via Zoom screenshot; transcript from ASAP Sports
