Zion Williamson is not just the best, most productive player on Duke's team. He is the best player in college basketball. Yet Sunday, with the Blue Devils' season on the line in the Elite Eight, Duke looked elsewhere for a last-second lift.

Now, Duke is headed home, victims of a 68-67 dogfight No. 2 seed Michigan State ultimately won to claim a thrilling East Regional final.

The best player in the sport was rendered useless when it mattered most -- not by a defensive scheme, not because of an injury or because he had gone cold. He was served up as a decoy. Williamson scored just two points (on 1 of 1 shooting) over the game's final six minutes. While Michigan State's best players stepped up -- Cassius Winston making triples, Xavier Tillman enjoying the game of his life as MSU did what no one thought it could -- Williamson mostly stood in the corner or in the post, waiting for an entry pass that never came. 

With Duke leading by one with under a minute to play, RJ Barrett hoisted and missed a jumper. After a Michigan State 3-pointer with 39 seconds remaining, Duke trailing by two at the time, The Blue Devils' next shot was again a missed Barrett jumper, this one from 3-point range. Then, with Duke needing a bucket trailing by two in the same sequence, it was again Barrett who got his number called. He missed the first free throw and made the second, giving Michigan State a win if it could simply inbounds the play.

"I tried to miss the second one," Barrett said of the final free throw that went in by accident. "It's funny that it went in."

"They don't beat themselves," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski after the game. "We had one critical possession after a timeout where we didn't really run what we were supposed to run. And we turned it over. And they didn't do that. They didn't do that. But that's what happens."

Williamson's final two shots: A made 3-pointer and a made layup. One shot over the final six minutes and 42 seconds. The same Williamson who scored 17 points in the second half and went 2 of 4 from 3 and 7 of 11 in the final frame, managed no quality looks to win the game with Duke's season on the line.

History suggests Duke should have known where to go in crunch time. Against Gonzaga earlier this season with the game in the balance, Barrett's number was called. He drove right into two defenders, missing the open teammate on the opposite block and had his shot swatted. The result? Duke lost.

Just last week, Williamson showed himself capable of coming up big in crunch time. With Duke trailing by three, Williamson attacked the basket and 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, drew contact and finished, leading to Barrett's putback that served as a game-winner. Williamson rewarded Duke's faith with a winning play, and Krzyzewski admitted as much afterwards.

"The will to win of Zion and RJ, you can't measure it. It's just there," Krzyzewski said. "They're young, and we're a young group, but what they did right at the end of that game in willing us to win was just absolutely sensational."

Why the best player in college basketball was demoted to decoy with Duke's season on the line will be a question Blue Devils fans may endlessly ponder, and one Krzyzewski may rue. A dream season, a dream team, a star coach. Duke had it all. But now its season has come to a crashing halt, and Williamson, the most electric talent college basketball has seen in decades, had little say in how it all ended.