UConn bettors still haunted by most infamous bad beat in NCAA Tournament history

Duke's Chris Duhon tries to shoot under pressure from Connecticut's Ben Johnson and Rashid Anderson in the first half of their NCAA Final Four semifinal game Saturday, April 3, 2004, in San Antonio. (Morry Gash/AP)

“In ‘Confessions of a Winning Poker Player,’ Jack King said, ‘Few players recall big pots they have won — strange as it seems — but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.’ It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can’t stop thinking of how I lost it.” — Mike McD (Matt Damon) in the classic gambling movie “Rounders”

Bad beats have become as much a part of the NCAA Tournament as buzzer-beaters and bracket busters.

“There’s been a lot of meaningless 3s that have been hit or baskets that have been sunk that didn’t have an impact on the result of the game but certainly had an impact on Las Vegas,” Westgate sports book manager Jay Kornegay said. “Every year we get those.”

Perhaps the most infamous bad beat in NCAA Tournament history took place in the 2004 Final Four, where Duke’s Chris Duhon banked in an otherwise meaningless 38-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to burn Connecticut bettors in the Huskies’ 79-78 win.

Duhon’s running heave off of one foot is featured in the montage of highlights for the “Bad Beats” segment on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” with Scott Van Pelt.

The game also remains the most excruciating bad beat for me and ESPN Radio host Mitch Moss.

Before I became the sophisticated sports bettor and family man I am today — at least one of those descriptions is accurate — I would occasionally bet $100 three-team parlays. I had hit the first two legs of my $100 three-teamer that Friday night and needed only UConn to cover the 1½-point spread on Saturday to win $600.

I was so confident Emeka Okafor and Co. would beat J.J. Redick’s Blue Devils that I brilliantly decided not to hedge. It was either that or, being the financial wizard that I was at the time, I might not have had any money left to hedge with.

Moss was on the Huskies in a much bigger way, betting $1,200 to win $1,000 at minus-1 after buying a ½-point to avoid getting burned by the hook.

“It was the biggest bet of my life at the time, because I had a really good tournament,” he said. “I bought it down rather than betting UConn on the money line, just in case it would land at 1 and I’d get the push instead.

“I was kind of new to Vegas. I’d only been here for a couple years.”

With Okafor on the bench in foul trouble for most of the first half, Duke jumped out to a 7-point halftime lead and was ahead 75-67 with 3:15 left.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Moss said.

Agony turned to ecstasy when the Huskies miraculously went on an 11-0 run to go ahead 78-75 with 3.2 seconds left and Okafor at the line with a chance to seal the cover. If he didn’t hit both free throws, I was hoping he’d miss the second, as Duke didn’t have any timeouts left and the clock would’ve run out. But he missed the first and hit the second to ensure the win but not the cover.

Duhon then took the inbounds pass and quickly crossed half-court before driving a dagger through the hearts of UConn bettors.

“They come roaring back to get the lead, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God! They’re gonna do it.’ And then that happens. It was a miracle shot,” Moss said. “Just the emotions of that game — I was in my early 20s — that was a lot. It was so stressful at the time that I had a migraine.

“Thank God I had the push, but if I was smart enough, I would have had them on the money line and had the win.”

Tell me about it. It was an emotional roller-coaster ride for bettors over the final few minutes of that game, which ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell wrote at the time resulted in a swing of at least $30 million at Las Vegas sports books, where the line also sat at the Huskies by 2, 2½ and 3.

“That particular (bad beat) was better for the house than most of the guests,” Kornegay said. “But there’s been others that have been the opposite. I certainly believe it evens out in the long run.”

We can only hope so.

While watching the replay of the ending on YouTube — it still stings 13 years later — I could only shake my head when CBS announcer Jim Nantz said after Duhon’s shot that “it doesn’t matter.”

Follow all of our NCAA Tournament coverage online at reviewjournal.com/MarchMadness and @RJ_Sports on Twitter.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.