Two Eerily Relevant Videos Resurface After Duke’s Unfortunate Loss to UConn

Jon Scheyer asks his players what to do in a situation they would eventually find themselves in. | @DukeMBB

There's always a tweet. It's something we say online when someone does or says something that contradicts something they previously posted about. Unfortunately for Duke, there's a tweet and an Instagram post that makes the final moments of their Elite Eight loss to UConn on Sunday extra painful.

This story begins with former Duke point guard Tre Jones who found himself with the ball in the final seconds of a game between the Bulls and Suns earlier this month. Rather than allow himself to get fouled, Jones threw the ball up in the air and preserved the win for Chicago. While walking to the locker room after the game Jones looked into a camera and credited, "that Duke education."

Coach Jon Scheyer showed the clip the next day and then the social media team edited the Jones highlight together with footage of Scheyer showing the players. That video was then posted on multiple social media channels with the simple caption, "that Duke education" along with brain and "sweat smile" emojis. Jones, who played at Duke from 2018 to 2020 when Scheyer was still an assistant also commented on the Instagram video saying "@jscheyer my guy taught me everything i know."

that Duke education 😅🧠 @Tre3Jones pic.twitter.com/EZPhdbA4Kh

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 6, 2026

"Understand the game situation," Scheyer said before playing the clip. "The Bulls are up two, four seconds to go." Scheyer then paused the clip as Jones grabbed the ball and asked the players what they should do in that situation. Multiple players spoke up saying "throw the ball" with Scheyer confirming the ball should either be thrown down the court or up in the air.

Now this isn't exactly the same situation. Jones was actually saving the ball from going out of bounds with less than two seconds remaining. And Cayden Boozer was trying to throw the ball down the court. It just so happened there were a couple defenders in the way, the ball got tipped, picked up by an opponent and then put in the basket.

A number of things had to go wrong for Duke to lose this game to UConn and it started long before Boozer failed to implement the lesson he learned in a morning meeting more than three weeks earlier.

But now everyone knows that throwing the ball up in the air in this situation is a viable option. Or is it?

Throwing the ball up in that situation wouldn't have necessarily clinched the game for Duke. In fact, this is where it gets kind of weird. Exactly 19 years ago today, on the same exact court that UConn and Duke played on yesterday, an NBA player threw the ball up in the air in the final seconds and an opponent caught the ball and hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime.

The Wizards, hosting the Raptors at what was then called the Verizon Center, were up 109-106 when Michael Ruffin intercepted a pass and threw the ball up in the air with 3.7 seconds remaining. Morris Peterson caught it and hit a three and Toronto went on to win the game in overtime.

Someone has already merged the videos on Reddit.

Having now revisited both of these videos, it's pretty clear that Boozer just throwing the ball into the air would not have saved Duke. In fact, he got the ball with 7.3 seconds remaining so it's not even really comparable at all.

There's a lesson in here somewhere. Let's just hope we've all learned the right one.

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