Duke’s Cayden Boozer Had Saddest Line About His Brother After Heartbreaking Loss to UConn

Duke’s season came to an end Sunday with it’s dramatic loss to UConn. | Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Duke’s hopes of going back to the Final Four came to a stunning end Sunday after UConn rallied back to beat the Blue Devils in the most dramatic of ways in their Elite Eight showdown in Washington, D.C.

Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, held the lead throughout the game and seemed destined to advance to Indianapolis. But then disaster struck as they turned the ball over in the final seconds and watched as UConn’s Braylon Mullins drained a game-winning three-pointer with under a second left in the game.

The Duke player who committed that costly turnover was star freshman Cayden Boozer. He and his brother, Cameron Boozer, teamed up this year on the Blue Devils with the dream of winning a national championship together at the historic program. Instead, they fell short in crushing fashion.

After the game Cayden Boozer spoke to the media and had a devastating line about how he felt after the loss.

“I just feel like I let him down,” Cayden Boozer said of his brother, who was also a freshman this season.

Here are Cayden Boozer’s postgame comments, in which he goes into the painful details of what went wrong on that turnover.

Cayden Boozer says he feels like he let his brother down. May be the last time they get to play together. pic.twitter.com/CCMSOm5Zvw

— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) March 30, 2026

What went wrong on Duke’s costly turnover that led to UConn’s stunning win

Duke had a two-point lead with 10 seconds remaining and just needed to hold on to the ball as UConn would have fouled them. Instead, Cayden Boozer tried to fire off a pass to a wide-open teammate on the other end of the floor. The pass was then tipped, UConn got possession and Mullins hit his heroic shot from way downtown.

“I turned the ball over, I should’ve been strong with the ball,” Cayden Boozer said after the game. “I cost our team our season.”

Here’s how that moment, which will be shown for years, played out:

OH MY GOODNESS 😱

UCONN LEADSSSS UNBELIEVABLE #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/IPX2JWiw0b

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 29, 2026

What’s next for Cayden and Cameron Boozer

Duke’s exit from the tournament should soon be followed by Cameron Boozer’s exit from the program as he’s expected to be a top-five pick in this year’s NBA draft. The 6’ 9’’ forward averaged 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds a game for the Blue Devils and lived up to the hype that surrounded him heading into this season.

Cayden Boozer, a 6’ 4’’ guard, averaged just 7.7 points a game for the Blue Devils and is expected to return for a sophomore season.

Cayden Boozer spoke after Sunday’s loss about what it meant to be teammates with his brother this year, saying this was the last time they’d be able to choose to be teammates and that the experience was something they will never forget.

“It’s been a special year,” Cayden Boozer said. “Obviously being able to do what we did this year is really special. Again, this was the last time we were able to choose this and I was never going to pass that up.”

The 2026 men’s Final Four is set

The 2026 men’s Final Four will be played in Indianapolis this coming weekend. UConn will face Illinois in Saturday’s first game (6:09 p.m. ET) and then Michigan and Arizona will battle it out at 8:09 p.m. ET. The championship game will be Monday night at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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