Ranking the Biggest Final Four Choke Jobs in Men’s March Madness History

The last few minutes of Houston's win over Duke in Saturday's national semifinal and Florida's win over Houston in Monday's national championship showed the greatness of the NCAA tournament.

In a one-game, loser-goes-home environment, anything can happen.

The history of the Final Four is filled with unlikely second-half meltdowns. We're here to break down where the collapses of Duke and Houston rank all-time.

This is not a list of the biggest deficits overcome in Final Four history. Instead, it takes time and score into account since, for example, blowing a nine-point lead with roughly two minutes to go is far worse than blowing a bigger first-half lead.

1963 Cincinnati vs. Loyola-Chicago, national championship

The Bearcats led by 45-30 six minutes into the second half, but they scored just nine points in the rest of regulation. The Ramblers won in overtime on a buzzer-beating tip-in from Vic Rouse.

1998 Utah vs. Kentucky, national championship

The Utes led 45-33 early in the second half, but the Wildcats stormed back for a 78-69 win. It was Kentucky's second championship in three years.

2023 Florida Atlantic vs. San Diego State, national semifinal

The Owls led 56-42 with just under 14 minutes left. But the Aztecs kept chipping away before they got a buzzer-beater from Lamont Butler for a 72-71 win. They were no match Connecticut in the national championship.

1994 Florida vs. Duke, national semifinal

The Blue Devils trailed by 13 early in the second half, but they came back for a 70-65 win. They went on to lose in the title game to Arkansas.

1989 Duke vs. Seton Hall, national semifinal

The Blue Devils led 26-8 with 8:36 to go in the first half, but the Pirates dominated from there, winning 95-78. Seton Hall lost to Michigan in the national championship.

1992 Indiana vs. Duke, national semifinal

The Hoosiers had a 12-point lead late in the first half. The Blue Devils went on to win 81-78 before dominating Michigan in the national championship.

2012 Ohio State vs. Kansas, national semifinal

The Buckeyes led 34-21 with under a minute to go in the first half. The Jayhawks scaled the mountain in the second half, winning 64-62 before losing to Kentucky in the national championship.

Most commanding lead: 15 points at halftime

North Carolina pushed the lead to 16 earlier in the first half and eventually went into the locker room with a 40-25 lead. The Heels opened the second half with an 90.5 percent win probability, per ESPN.

The Jayhawks started the second half on a blistering 31-10 run to take a six-point lead. But the Tar Heels stopped the bleeding and even retook a 69-68 lead with 1:41 to go.

However, David McCormack scored on Kansas' next two possessions, and the Jayhawks held on for a 72-69 win.

Briefly regaining the lead had no bearing on UNC's ranking here, as losing a one-point lead late in the game is not choking. But it surely did make it all the more painful.

Most commanding lead: 22 points with under seven minutes left in first half

The Terrapins jumped out to 39-17 lead, but once the Blue Devils got rolling, they couldn't be stopped. Duke cut the lead to 11 by halftime, and it outscored Maryland 57-35 in the second half.

Shane Battier, Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer combined for 67 points as the Blue Devils took advantage of 21 Maryland turnovers.

Maryland got its revenge next year, winning the national championship.

Most commanding lead: 11 points with 14 minutes to go in the second half

Houston led by 12 minutes before, but its highest win probability, per ESPN, was when it led 45-34 with 14:07 to go. At that moment, the Cougars had a 93 percent chance to cut down the nets.

The Gators responded with a 14-3 run, tying the game at 48 with 7:54 to go.

Giving away that lead was bad enough, but what put the Cougars over similar blown leads was the offensive execution in the last two minutes.

Leading 63-62, Milos Uzan took a pull-up three that got blocked by Will Richard. Their next shot was an L.J. Cryer wild floater that missed badly. Joseph Tugler rebounded that but immediately got stripped, losing the ball out of bounds.

The next possession, Cryer turned it over, leading to a transition opportunity for Florida. Alijah Martin got fouled and made both free throws, giving the Gators their first lead since it was 8-6.

Then Emanuel Sharp drove right where Richard was, and Richard knocked the ball off Sharp's knee for another Houston turnover.

After the Gators split two free throws, the Cougars ran a play for Sharp, who rose up to take a potential game-winning three. But Walter Clayton Jr.'s contest was so good that Sharp thought he was going to get blocked, so he dropped the ball to avoid an up-and-down violation. Alex Condon fell on it, and time expired.

In all, the Cougars had four turnovers, one shot blocked, and one shot that had no chance in the last two minutes.

There's an argument this collapse should have been ranked in the top three, but the top four on this list featured two-possession-plus leads blown in the last 1-3 minutes of the game.

Most commanding lead: Seven points with under three minutes to go

Chris Duhon hit two free throws to give Duke a 75-68 lead with 3:28 to go. From there, the Blue Devils probably needed to hit just one shot in their next five offensive possessions to win, but they went scoreless instead.

- Luol Deng missed a three with 2:48 to go
- Daniel Ewing missed a mid-range jumper with 2:12 left
- Duhon got stripped with 1:36 to go
- Deng missed a three with 46 seconds left
- JJ Redick got stripped with 14 seconds left

Led by Emeka Okafor, UConn went on an 11-0 run before Duhon hit a meaningless three at the buzzer, giving the Huskies a 79-78 win in the de facto national championship game. Connecticut beat Georgia Tech two days later 82-73.

Most commanding lead: Four points with 17 seconds left

When Anfernee McLemore hit a free throw to put Auburn up four with 17 seconds left, the Tigers had a 92.4 percent win probability, per ESPN. However, a disastrous sequence sent them packing.

First, the Tigers allowed a Kyle Guy three with nine seconds left even though they were presumably playing a "no threes" defense. Then Jared Harper split two free throws.

They saved the worst for last, as Samir Doughty committed the cardinal sin of fouling a three-point shooter with less than one second left. Guy made all three freebies to give the Cavaliers a 63-62 win.

Virginia had a 10-point lead with 5:24 to go, so one could argue Auburn shouldn't be on this list with an amazing comeback preceding the collapse.

But blowing a late four-point lead with a bad foul is more painful than, say, 2001 Maryland blowing a big early lead and trailing the entire last four minutes.

Most commanding lead: Nine points with two minutes to go

Entering the 2008 national championship game, many analysts noted that Memphis' Achilles' heel was free-throw shooting. They were proved right.

Chris Douglas-Roberts missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:15 to go. Then he missed a pair of free throws with 16 seconds to go.

All of that would have been forgotten had future No. 1 NBA draft pick Derrick Rose made both of his free throws with 10 seconds left, but he missed one, leaving the door open for Kansas.

Mario Chalmers hit the game-tying three-pointer with under four seconds left, and the Jayhawks won in overtime.

Most commanding lead: 14 points with 8:17 to go

ESPN's model says Duke had a 98.5 percent win probability when it took a 59-45 lead with 8:17 left and a 95.2 percent win probability when it went up 64-55 on a Cooper Flagg three with three minutes to go.

We'll focus more on the last three minutes here, but note that for Houston to even get into position to complete its comeback, it had a 10-0 run before two Tyrese Proctor free throws and Flagg's three.

In the last three minutes, Duke went 0-of-2 with two turnovers. But the most important sequence occurred at the free-throw line.

With 20 seconds left, Proctor was on the line shooting the front end of a one-and-one with the Blue Devils leading by one. He missed, and Flagg was called for a questionable over-the-back trying to secure the rebound.

That gave J'Wan Roberts a one-and-one, and he made both.

Flagg, the presumptive 2025 No. 1 NBA draft pick, missed a fadeaway jumper on the next possession. The Cougars closed it out from there to escape with a 70-67 win, sealing the most devastating meltdown in March Madness history.

2025 Duke and 2008 Memphis were essentially tied based on the ranking criteria, but we gave the Blue Devils the No. 1 ranking because they were a bigger favorite entering the game.

In other words, Duke was supposed to win due to its considerable talent advantage, which made the choke job more shocking as it was happening, whereas Kansas-Memphis was seen as a tossup.