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Seth Davis praises Cayden Boozer's 'incredible grace' after UConn loss in Elite Eight

Byington mugby: Alex Byington03/30/26_AlexByington

Cayden Boozer‘s eyes were still red from all the tears shed following Sunday night’s heartbreaking 73-72 Elite Eight loss to UConn as he sat in front of his locker inside Capitol One Arena. But that didn’t stop the Duke freshman from fielding question after question about his late-game turnover that led directly to Huskies guard Braylon Mullins‘ game-winning 3-pointer with less than half-a-second on the clock.

And while the NCAA requires players to be available for 30 minutes following a brief cooling-off period postgame, Boozer’s professionalism after what was undoubtedly a personally devastating moment in his career didn’t go unnoticed by media members far and wide.

In fact, after seeing a video of what was undoubtedly one of Boozer’s final interviews of that 30-minute window from WRAL5‘s Brian Murphy, CBS Sports‘ Seth Davis couldn’t help but gush over the “incredible grace” from the 18-year-old son of former NBA superstar Carlos Boozer in that moment.

“I’ve seen many pro athletes and coaches in similar situations decline to take questions from the media, and frankly I don’t blame them,” Davis wrote Sunday night on X/Twitter. “Cayden Boozer is a college freshman and handled this with incredible grace and professionalism. Much respect to him and his family. He was raised well.”

Cayden Boozer, the other half of Duke’s superstar freshmen tandem along with twin brother Cameron, coughed up the ball with six seconds left in regulation Sunday night when the Blue Devils simply needed to run out the clock. Five seconds later, Mullins’ clutch 3-pointer capped UConn’s stunning second-half comeback with his last-second game-winner.

And even as Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer made it clear one play didn’t ultimately decide Sunday night’s final score, Cayden Boozer shouldered responsibility for even putting Duke in that situation.

“I turned the ball over. I should’ve been stronger with the ball,” Boozer said postgame, courtesy of The Field of 68. “I cost our team our season.”

The Boozer brothers are expected to enter the 2026 NBA Draft, with Cameron a projected lottery pick and Cayden a potential late-first or early-second round pick. But given the inherent uncertainty involved in the NBA Draft, Cayden knows Sunday night might be the twins’ last game together

“It’s been a special year. Obviously being able to do what we did this year is just really special,” Cayden Boozer told Murphy, “and this (may be) the last time we’re able to chose (to play together), and I was never going to pass that up. I just feel like I let him down.”

Heartbreak aside, if this was their last game on the same team, the Boozer brothers went out in style. Cayden finished second on the team with 15 points on 4-of-5 shooting with six assists and five rebounds, while Cameron posted a game-high 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting with eight rebounds and four assists.