WASHINGTON — Braylon Mullins retrieved a loose ball near midcourt and suddenly, improbably, UConn had a chance to win. As the frantic final seconds unfolded, Dan Hurley figured a timeout would do little good.

After being down by as many as 19 on Sunday, Braylon Mullins retrieved a loose ball near midcourt in the waning seconds against Duke and hit a three-pointer from 35 feet away to take the lead.

Mullins, after the Huskies fell down by 19 points early, drilled a wild logo 3-pointer with just 0.4 seconds left on the clock to push UConn to a 73-72 win. That came after a brutal turnover from Cayden Boozer, too. All Boozer had to do was hang onto the ball, and it would have been Duke that was headed to Indianapolis instead.

A troubling update on Solo Ball is raising concerns for UConn just days before its high-stakes Final Four clash against Illinois.

The victory that earned the Huskies’ eighth trip to the Final Four might go down as the most remarkable in program history.

UConn looked down and out in an Elite Eight matchup against Duke on Sunday. But it rallied from a 19-point first-half deficit to stun the Blue Devils in the East regional final with a wild second-half rally.

Back when he first came to town – back when some of his Big East peers derided his school as the Northwestern of the conference and questioned why Dave Gavitt even let them in – Jim Calhoun tried to solve UConn’s identity crisis one misinformed person at a time.