As you probably know, there have been tons of stories about Braylon Mullin’s shot that sent the UConn Huskies to the Final Four. Social media was going crazy – and rightfully so. But because of it, I feel like I need to comment on a couple things that I have seen.

Lets start with the pathetic controversy and go to the most complicated (and also the one I care the most about).

First, as you can imagine, the emotions as the three-pointer went off were high for both teams. So, imagine being the announcers doing the Duke radio broadcast. When the basket went in and chaos ensued, the announcer screamed “Malachi Smith ran off the bench! That should be a technical!”

The Lunatic has mentioned this before and he is torn on the matter. On one side, the Lunatic believes you need to win with sportsmanship – it is an exciting moment but you need to let the game completely finish before you celebrate. On the other side, in almost all these buzzer-beaters, the final horn does go off – when the ball goes in with 0.4 seconds left, by the time it hits the ground and the scoring table can react, the 0.4 seconds go off the clock and the horn goes off. The bench might think the game really is over.

And after seeing this moment happen in real-time, this realization went into my head that has changed my original opinion. What happened in the UConn / Duke game was incredible and hitting a shot from the logo with your season on the line is a dream scenario – do we really want to see that result wiped out because your teammates celebrated the amazing shot.

I guess if you are Duke fan, maybe – but for the rest of the world, no one wants to see that historic shot taken away because the referee calls a technical foul on the bench.

But here is the part of this controversy that is ridiculously sad and does deserve to be commented on. Malachi Smith was running around the court, because he was actually in the game when the shot went in. I get that the announcer was heart-broken and wanted to see some chance of winning – but if you are announcing the game, you have to know who is on the court.

Now, to the next call for a technical foul. A video surfaced of Dan Hurley appearing to head-butt an official while celebrating the basket, and so many have complained that Hurley should have gotten a technical foul for hitting an official.

Now, we all know that I don’t like Dan Hurley, but even the Lunatic says anyone asking for this is ridiculous. First of all, as mentioned above, do we really want one of the most memorable moments of the tournament to get wiped out because the referee called a technical foul on the head coach.

But after the controversy, apparently the press went to the referee, and even he said that nothing happened. From what I have gathered, the referee went to Hurley to try to tell him that there would be 0.4 seconds on the clock and they leaned into each other so they could hear each other with the arena erupting into chaos. I don’t know if that story is true or not – obviously, the only people who know are the referee and Dan Hurley. But I have a hard time believing that if a referee got truly head-butted by a coach that the referee would hold his whistle and not call anything.

Since I also believe in Karma, I heard some of the praise that Dan Hurley had for the Duke coach and players, especially Cameron and Cayden Boozer. I might not like how demonstrative that Dan Hurley is on the court. But it is clear that his players love playing for him, and it is clear that he does have a lot of respect for the teams they play. He could have kept the press conference focused on his team, and he made sure to praise his opponents – especially knowing that some of the comments that will come towards them will be cruel and mean for losing a 19 point lead.

But here is the one that I need to say something about. Because it is the one that breaks the Lunatic’s heart. After the game, the press got some quotes from Cayden Boozer, who made the pass that got stolen. Apparently, he had tears in his eyes and blood on his jersey as he was asked to reflect on what happened.

“I could have been strong with the ball and not turned it over,” Cayden Boozer said. “I take full responsibility. I saw two guys open. I was just trying to get it there, but I could have taken my time. We just had a lot of time. I turned the ball over. I lost it. I ruined our team’s season.”

As is predictable with social media, while there have been both sides, many fans have been brutal about Boozer, saying that he cost Duke the game with his mistake. If he just hung onto the ball, Duke wins this game. And as you can expect, many fans have been brutal on the freshman point guard.

In the moment, I even thought the same thing that was a big mistake. Just take the foul. But there is a big thing between making a mistake and saying that this young man cost Duke their season. So, lets reflect.

First – on the moment. He made the pass with about 6 seconds left – and would have had a one-and-one if he held it and got fouled. There is no telling what happens in that six seconds. He could have just as easily missed the free-throw, the Huskies could have rushed the ball up the court, and hit a three-pointer to win the game. Time ran off the clock as UConn chased after the deflected pass and then brought the ball back up the court. If he had held onto the ball, he could have been fouled with all that time still left. UConn also could have trapped and forced a jump-ball, which would have given them the ball since they had the arrow.

Do I think that Duke had a better chance of winning the game if he had held onto the ball – in the moment, I did. But realizing some of the situations (such as a freshman would have been going to the line with 6 seconds left for a one-and-one to send his team to the Final Four – no pressure there), its certainly not a given that they would have won.

But here is the kicker – when I watched the replay over and over again (simply because I wanted to see the shot again and again and again), I noticed something. Not only did Cayden Boozer see two players open in the frontcourt. There was no Connecticut player on that side of the court – they were all trying to either trap or foul. If Silas Demary does not block Boozer’s pass, the game is over. One of the two Duke players would have gotten the pass, and ended the game by either dribbling out the clock or making it four point lead with a thunderous dunk.

Boozer saw a chance to win the game, and he went for it. Silas Demary made a great defensive play – and obviously, the rest is history. In these situations, it is so easy to blame the player for making a bad decision. But truthfully, in that split second, it is probably more fair to say that Demary made an outstanding play than Boozer made a horrifying blunder.

With 4 minutes to play, Isaiah Evans tried to drive past his defender and fell, losing the ball, and allowing Solo Ball to drive to the basket, get a layup, get fouled, and finish the three-point play from the line. And yet, I am not seeing any narratives that Isaiah Evans cost Duke their entire season.

With a little over a minute, Cameron Boozer was setting up to drive to the basket, and lost control of his dribble, where Tarris Reed Jr stole the ball. On the next possession, Connecticut would get the ball to Alex Karaban for a three-pointer that cut the lead to 1. And yet, I am not seeing any narratives that Cameron Boozer cost Duke their entire season.

Duke had a 19 point lead. There are so many places where you can point to a play that the Huskies made a great play and cut the lead. We need to have someone to blame, and we tend to focus on the last thing that happened. And yet, it is easy to miss the people who should truly be blamed. While it is nice that Cayden Boozer took responsibility for the mistake, the two people who should be blamed for Duke’s season being over are Silas Demary Jr for blocking the pass and Braylon Mullins for hitting the miracle shot, not Boozer for seeing open teammates and trying to get the ball to them to win the game.

Cayden Boozer shot 4-5 from the field, hit his only three-point shot, made all 6 of his free throws to score 15 points, and he added 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. He only turned the ball over 3 times which is a pretty good assist to turnover ratio for a starting point guard. He was very efficient throughout the game. He saw an opportunity to win the game, and unfortunately, his defender made a better play.

People can say that Cayden Boozer cost the Blue Devils the game and their season. But the truth is that the Blue Devils are not leading by 2 points with 10 seconds to play if it wasn’t for the outstanding game that Cayden Boozer had played up to that point.

So – yes, in retrospect, maybe Boozer had better options. But it makes the Lunatic sad that a player who shot 80% from the field and scored double digits in points felt like they were the sole reason that his team is not going to the Final Four. And it makes the Lunatic even sadder when he knows some of the vitriol that he is having to endure this week from social media.

We get so caught up in saying that a player made a mistake, that sometimes we forget to think that maybe it was just the other player made a better play. For UConn, it is an amazing way to make it to the Final Four. For Duke, it was an excruciating way to have their season end. But college basketball is a team sport. The Blue Devils did not lose that game because of Cayden Boozer – they lost it because the Connecticut Huskies made an unbelievable comeback. Lets award credit rather than assign blame.