CHARLOTTE -- Chris Collins came within a bounce of leading Duke to the national championship Monday night.
When the Blue Devils were in trouble, down by five to Arkansas with less than six minutes to play, the sophomore shooting guard nailed two consecutive three-pointers. His treys gave Duke the lead, 64-63.
But the one which fell away -- a spinning, 23-footer which would have answered Scotty Thurman's miraculous trey -- was the one on his mind after Duke fell to the Hogs 76-72 in the NCAA Tournament final.
"It felt great when I shot it," Collins said. "It probably felt as good as any shot I'd taken the whole game. It was a good shot -- everyone on our team felt it was a good shot. It was right in there, and it didn't go in. That's how it goes."
And that was how it went for Collins and the Blue Devils -- a gutsy effort all night long which fell an eyelash short.
"Right now, it hurts really bad," Collins said. "We were so close -- we had it in our grasp. We played great defense at the end, and they hit an unbelievable shot to beat us. It just hurts a lot. I'm very disappointed because we were that close to being the champs."
Collins finished with 12 points for the game -- all on three-pointers. He was 4-of-8 from behind the arc. It was the night when -- at long last -- the shots started to fall for the Northbrook, Ill. native. Collins was 6-of-24 on three pointers going into the game, and just 1-of-16 since Duke's opening round win over Texas Southern.
"I tried not to look at that stuff as much as possible," Collins said. "The media can get you really full of yourself, or it can get you really down and make you think you're not as good as you really are. As long as I was taking good shots. . ."
In his last chance to break the slump, Collins delivered.
"I knew I was going to shoot my way out of it," Collins said. "And I knew, in this game particularly, I was going to get a lot of open looks. I was able to knock them down, and it felt good out there."
But it didn't feel good afterwards.
"To me, losing is unacceptable," Collins said. "My whole life, I've been driven to win -- in everything. That's why this hurts really bad, because I know how much hard work I put in. And to put myself and this team in this position -- to be champions -- it really hurts. Obviously, I'll look back at it this summer and later on, and be very proud of what we accomplished. We did more than anybody expected. But right now, it hurts really bad because I know how close we were to achieving this."
Collins had one final chance to bring Duke back, as his treys had done once before -- this time from in the lane with under 30 seconds to go.
But Arkansas' Corliss Williamson and Dwight Stewart clogged the middle, and Collins' scoop shot fell away.
"I think we were down four at the time," Collins said. "We didn't necessarily need a three, so I tried to take it to the basket. I felt there was some contact. I put the ball up on the glass, it didn't go down. But you can't make excuses. Obviously, the refs aren't going to call a foul like at the end of the game. But I was trying to take the ball to the basket to see what we could get."
Arkansas got it -- and with the ball, the game.
"There's such a contrast -- winning and losing," Collins said. "One shot going down for us, and one not for them, and we're the ones celebrating the joy. But that's just what sports is all about."
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