By Michael K. Bohn, McClatchy-Tribune News Service –
Time for the March Madness Highlight Quiz. What’s the greatest game in NCAA basketball tournament history, at least according to “USA Today?” The 1982 North Carolina-Georgetown title game with freshmen Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan? Naw, only No. 4. The 1987 Indiana-Syracuse championship game? Nope, just No. 5.
The winner is . . . the 1992 East Regional between Duke and Kentucky. You remember. Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill against the Wildcats with sophomore Jamal Mashburn and four semi-anonymous, but loyal seniors. Duke fans have recalled two things about the game during the past 20 years — “the Pass” and “the Shot. Both happened in the last two seconds of overtime.
The Game. Duke arrived at the East Regional in Philadelphia’s Spectrum on the wings of basketball angels. The team had won the national championship the previous year, and a win over Kentucky would send Duke to its fifth straight Final Four appearance. During that run, Mike Krzyzewski had ascended to heavenly heights as a college coach. Duke had a 31-2 record at the start of the game.
Kentucky had scrambled its way back from a purgatory of NCAA sanctions, including two-year bans on postseason play and TV appearances. Coach Rick Pitino forged an up-tempo, pressing team around Mashburn and four players who stayed at Kentucky through the dark times — seniors Richie Farmer, Deron Feldhaus, John Pelphrey and Sean Woods. The Wildcats had a 29-6 record entering the regional final on March 28. “I really don’t think anybody expected us to get this far,” Farmer said before the game.
On the other hand, Duke was confident and the favorite of the bookies and broadcasters. “We thought we were going to beat them pretty good,” senior Duke swingman Brian Davis later recalled.
The Preliminaries. Both teams treated the crowd to an exciting and an up-tempo game through the first half and much of the second. “The pace was exhausting,” Hurley said recently. “Kentucky made us do what no other team had that year — play the game at their speed.”
But when Duke had surged to a 12-point lead with 11:08 left in the game, Pitino called timeout and ratcheted up the full-court, man-to-man pressure. “We have them right where we want them,” Pitino said to his players with no hint of his tongue in cheek. “Now we make our comeback.” It worked for a bit. A more aggressive Kentucky quickly reeled off eight straight points to get within four.
Duke kept scoring, however, and by the time Mashburn hit a short jumper from the baseline at the 9:43 mark, the Blue Devils still led 70-65. As Mashburn’s shot fell through, Feldhaus gave Laettner a late and gratuitous shove, sending the 6-foot-11-inch, 250-pound center onto the floor under the basket. Apparently thinking that the nearby Kentucky freshman Aminu Timberlake was the pusher, Laettner waited through three Duke possessions for a chance for a payback. Under the Wildcats’ basket, Laettner leaned into Timberlake while making a layup, sending the freshman to the floor. As the ref called a foul on Timberlake, Laettner thumped the prone Timberlake in the stomach with his right foot.
Laettner drew a contact technical foul, but the referees didn’t eject him. Here’s how the CBS announcing team saw the action. “I don’t know if he did it on purpose or not,” said commentator Len Elmore.
“Oh, yeah, he did,” concluded play-by-play man Verne Lundquist.
Laettner, whose team nickname was “A——,” admitted years later that he did it on purpose but not to hurt the player. Timberlake said in late 1992 that he viewed the stomp as a “chippy move, one that said, ‘I’m Christian Laettner and you’re not.’” Kentucky guard Dale Brown is still mad 20 years later, “He should have been thrown out.”
Mashburn, Pelphrey, Feldhaus and Brown resolutely kept Kentucky in the game as time grew short. With 33.6 seconds left and the score tied at 93, Duke played for the last shot. Not wanting to chance a turnover, Hurley kept the ball and dribbled away some time. With six seconds remaining, Hurley drove toward the lane. He hoisted an off-balance jumper at the right elbow over Woods that bounced off the back iron. “I had a good shot,” Hurley said, “I just didn’t execute.”
The first few possessions in the five-minute overtime period were tense and error-prone, and Duke trailed by two at the 2:17 mark. Laettner responded with two free throws to tie the score at 98 with 1:53 left on the clock. By that point, Laettner had enjoyed a perfect shooting game — eight for eight from the field and eight for eight from the foul line. Mashburn was leading the Wildcats then with 25 points.
After Woods missed a shot on the ensuing Kentucky possession, Laettner put Duke up two with an 8-foot running jumper off the glass. An admiring Pitino said, “That sucker’s never going to miss.”
Mashburn responded with a layup and a foul from Antonio Lang. With his free throw, Mashburn put Kentucky ahead 101-100 with 19.6 seconds left. But at the other end, Mashburn fouled out against Laettner, who made both free throws. Duke 102-101. Only 14.1 seconds remaining.
Once Woods dribbled past halfcourt, Pitino called timeout with 7.8 seconds on the game clock. Woods said in a recent interview that the plan was for him to drive the lane and kick it out if he didn’t have a shot. On the other bench, Krzyzewski marveled at Hurley’s presence of mind in a tense moment. “Bobby was saying, ‘If they score, remember to call a timeout.’ I didn’t say it, he said it.”
Woods took to the air at the foul line and lofted a 13-foot one-hand push over Laettner. The straight-on bank shot went in. Hurley and others later called it a playground shot, but still credited Woods with a clutch play. Brown saw it differently, 20 years later. “Sean made that shot every day in practice. He’d hit that leaner over Jamal all the time.” Brown now admits he thought the game was over at that point.
The Time Out. With 2.1 seconds left, most of the Blue Devils on the court called timeout after Woods’ basket. As his players gathered around him, Krzyzewski confidently predicted, “We’re gonna win.” He called for a play that Duke had attempted against Wake Forest the previous month. On the inbound, Grant Hill would throw a 75-foot pass to Laettner, who would be stationed at the Wildcats’ foul line. If Kentucky swarmed Laettner, he would attempt to tip the ball to Thomas Hill or Hurley. But if the defense allowed, he would catch, turn and shoot. The play hadn’t worked at Wake — Hill’s pass drew Laettner out of bounds — but Coach K had no other options. Besides, Laettner’s last second shot in 1990 beat Connecticut to send the Blue Devils to the Final Four. Surely destiny can ring twice.
“Grant, can you make the pass?” Krzyzewski asked Hill.
“Yeah, Coach, I can do it.”
“Can you catch it?” coach asked Laettner, who nodded yes.
Pitino decided not to guard Grant Hill on the inbound pass. He later cited his limited options on guarding Laettner, the presumed shooter. His two biggest veterans, Mashburn and center Gimel Martinez, had fouled out. He didn’t even consider using his two 6-9 freshmen: Timberlake and Andre Riddick. If he put either Pelphrey or Feldhaus on Hill, the other would have to guard Laettner by himself. He opted to let Hill roam the baseline uncontested and double-team Laettner.
Pitino cautioned against fouling Laettner. “The refs had been calling a lot of touchy-touch fouls,” Brown recalled, “and we didn’t want Laettner going to the line.”
A TV camera panned the stands and found Laettner’s mother, who was wearing a neck brace, rocking forward and back in her seat in abject terror.
The Pass. With Laettner at the foul line, his teammates spread out, keeping the Kentucky defenders, who were in man-to-man, away from Laettner. Only Lang, guarded by Woods, was within 10 feet of the Duke center. But Pelphrey and Feldhaus, hadn’t sandwiched Laettner as instructed. Brown was startled to see both of them behind Laettner. “Pelphrey was supposed to be in front of Christian,” he said.
When the ref flipped the ball to Hill on the baseline, Grant took one step to his right and cocked his right arm. He lofted a high, arching throw 75 feet down the court toward Laettner. The other Duke players began to move closer to the lane, hedging on a tipped ball. Lang ran to the right side of the lane under the basket. Of the long pass, Hill said later, “It seemed like it took forever to get there.”
The Shot. With Pelphrey and Feldhaus behind him, Laettner jumped and easily caught the ball. Pelphrey inexplicably fell away, but Feldhaus stood firm at the foul line with his arms raised. Lang boxed out Woods under the basket.
Laettner first took one dribble, bringing instant gasps from his teammates. “I was surprised,” said Hurley, thinking of the wasted time. After one bounce, Laettner head-faked to his right and then wheeled to his left, going up as he turned. By the time he squared up and was ready to release the ball, Feldhaus had dropped his arms and with his feet glued to the floor, became a spectator. Laettner faded away from the basket as he shot, 17 feet from the glass.
Woods, now on Lang’s hip, turned to watch. “It looked good as soon as it left his hand,” he said years later. Referee Tom Clark positioned himself to see both the release and the game clock. With air between Laettner’s right hand and the ball, it showed 0.2 seconds. Swish. Duke wins.
“I didn’t even see it go in the hoop,” Laettner said after the game. “All I saw was the net move.”
The Upshot. The delirious Dukies fell into the requisite pile on the floor. A TV camera found Thomas Hill, hands on top of his head, repeatedly crying “Oh my God.” The Wildcats aimlessly milled about, except for Sean Woods, who was face down on the court and pounding his fists on the floor. Later, Woods saw Laettner approach.
“Nice game,” Christian said.
“Nice shot,” replied Sean.
Duke went on to win its second straight national championship, while coach Pitino took Kentucky to the Final Four the following year, but lost in the semifinal game.
Laettner now serves as an assistant coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBA Developmental League. His North Carolina-based business activities are the subject of multiple lawsuits. Hurley had been an assistant coach to his brother Danny at Wagner College in New York, but Danny on Tuesday accepted the head-coaching job at Rhode Island. Grant Hill is in his 16th season in the NBA, playing for the Phoenix Suns.
Kentucky’s Woods is the head basketball coach at Mississippi Valley State University, which lost in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Mashburn is a successful businessman after 11 years in the NBA. Pelphrey is an assistant coach at Florida and Feldhaus owns a golf course in Kentucky. Farmer just finished an eight-year run as Kentucky’s commissioner of agriculture. Dale Brown is the head coach at Clark Atlanta University.
