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The Laettner shot
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00:03Welcome to ESPN Classics Battle Lines. I'm Rich Eisen. It was all so perfect. The perfect shot for the perfect
00:11ending to the perfect game. You see it still in your memory bank. The long, long pass, the turnaround jump
00:17for the kids.
00:18What the? And Duke beats Kentucky for the 1992 National Championship. Except that they didn't. Oh, Duke won, but it
00:28wasn't for the National Championship, and it wasn't even in the Final Four. It was a regional final, but it
00:34was so good, so pure, that we subconsciously elevate it to championship status.
00:43To be a great game, a game has to have three things. It has to be significant.
00:48The NCAA would dream of a game like this in that Final Four.
00:54Ideally, it would be superbly played.
00:57Thomas Hill. Yes!
01:00And then it has to have drama.
01:03How did he find the courage to take that time of time?
01:09And this game met each of those criteria.
01:13Like this flower blooming right in front of you. You could just sort of see it happening.
01:19And every layer of the game seemed to be more astonishing than the other.
01:24People just made unbelievable offensive plays, and it was great to watch. It just went back and forth.
01:30Helfrey for three. Duke in transition.
01:33Leitner.
01:35All I can liken it to is just musical chairs.
01:37That music's going to stop, and then whoever's got the chair, that's the end of the story.
01:43Here's Hurley.
01:46Oh, boy!
01:48It was one brilliant play after another, but it was one brilliant coaching move after another, too.
01:56It was some of the most incredible basketball that's ever been played.
02:02It was Muhammad Ali versus Frazier.
02:06And who's going to win the fight? You don't know until the referee renders the decision.
02:10Neil Brown.
02:12Oh, yes!
02:13And one!
02:15I've seen a lot of basketball games, and of all the pros of college, the high school, Olympics, down to
02:22the playground,
02:23I think this was the greatest basketball game ever.
02:26The stakes were high. Both teams played it.
02:31At a high level, and it came down to some heroics there at the end.
02:39It was one of those moments in your career where you're thinking, boy, am I glad I'm here.
02:44It was every emotion that you could possibly imagine kind of boiled down and rinsed over human beings.
02:53You can never thank those kids enough for that 45 minutes.
02:58It was something that'll affect you forever.
03:01I kept a nice flip-card score sheet that day, had it, and I immediately turned it over and wrote
03:05on the back,
03:06greatest college game ever, many years later.
03:09I am firmer in my conviction that that was the greatest college basketball game of all time.
03:14I had Tucky in the 1992 East Regional Final.
03:18Not only were the Blue Devils defending national champions, they had won 31 of 33 games.
03:24Duke trying to get in the Final Four for the fifth straight time.
03:27They were quite familiar faces to the American sporting public.
03:32There was a whole generation of kids who thought Duke was supposed to be in the Final Four.
03:38They almost used rock stars.
03:40Springsteen didn't have any eligibility in college, but Leitner and her, every time they went to a...
03:47Whoa.
03:51Hey.
03:53You smell that, uh, teen spirit?
03:57They were doing a shoot-around, and there's 12,000 people.
04:00Watch them shoot jump shots and run wind sprints, and they're screaming and hollering.
04:05There were literally hundreds of screaming girls coming to see Leitner.
04:12He was the lead singer, and I played the bass, and, you know, keyboard, and Brian on the drums.
04:18We couldn't get out of the bag and put him on the bus.
04:22It was cool, and it was a lot of fun.
04:24It made basketball fun.
04:26Duke not only had game, it had attitude.
04:31Any team that has enjoyed that kind of success is going to have a certain arrogance, but Duke, I think,
04:35enjoyed being arrogant.
04:36That team, when you watch them play, they had an almost utter disdain for their opponent.
04:41People kind of were negative toward us.
04:44You know, we stuck our chest out a little further and said, okay, let's go.
04:49That team wanted to win another national championship.
04:54You don't do that without some arrogance.
04:57If there was one lightning rod for people's feelings about Duke, it was Christian Leitner.
05:02He was a guy who just wanted to lord it over you, got in your face, got in his teammates'
05:07faces.
05:08If you got easily offended as a teammate, you were in trouble.
05:14Leitner was hard on the younger guys.
05:17It wasn't like they were the Waltons, kind of playing out there.
05:20Good night, John Boy.
05:21Good night, Christian.
05:22Good night, Grant.
05:22You know, there were times when they didn't get along.
05:24He was cocky.
05:25He was arrogant.
05:26You know, he thought he was the best thing in the world.
05:29Thought he looked better than everybody.
05:30I don't think that he probably minds anybody thinking that he was ever a jerk.
05:36Because Leitner realized that anger can sometimes motivate people.
05:41Anytime you're doing well, reaching your goals, I think it's normal for a little arrogance to creep in.
05:48He had his own temperament and his own sometimes surly personality.
05:53He knew how to take it and harness it.
05:56Christian had a fire.
05:58And I was the landlord of an apartment building.
06:02You can either use fire to heat the building or to burn it down.
06:07Christian's fire heated our building to the highest level.
06:11Exactly.
06:13Kentucky knew how Duke felt.
06:16After all, the Wildcats had been the first college basketball dynasty.
06:20But now, they were trying to recover from a wrenching scandal.
06:25We're the butt of jokes.
06:27People think we don't wear shoes and we don't have teeth.
06:29And that we're not educated.
06:32But we've always had this one thing that we're better at than anybody.
06:37This program won five national championships.
06:40It won 36 SEC titles.
06:43But going into 1989, the program went on probation and almost suffered the death penalty for some severe recruiting violations.
06:49The Bills and Mills affair.
06:52You have $1,000 sitting there going to Chris Mills from the University of Kentucky basketball office.
06:58And the other charge was academic fraud.
07:02That was another charge that Kentucky was found guilty of.
07:06Knocked out of the postseason for two years off television.
07:09Couldn't even play in the conference tournament.
07:11Couldn't win the conference championship.
07:13All the players that the fans perceived as the good players were gone.
07:17So for the team to be on probation, to be knocked out for whatever reason, not eligible for championships,
07:23it's devastating for a basketball-loving state.
07:27Rick Pitino was hired to coach Kentucky on June 1st, 1989 with an unmistakable mandate.
07:33Restore the dynasty.
07:36Here you have what I call the Roman Empire of college basketball.
07:40It has burned.
07:42The Sports Illustrated article with the captioned shame was the way the NCAA looked at it and said it'll happen
07:48no longer.
07:50Sanctions, probation, all the good players transferring.
07:53You're left with the slow, short ones.
07:55You have to rebuild the Roman Empire the right way with great integrity.
07:59Leadership starts the man on top and it becomes contagious.
08:02Rick Pitino.
08:03He had them believe.
08:04He had them have a sense of pride.
08:06He was a teacher.
08:07He was a motivator.
08:08Rick Pitino told us these were guys he probably never would have recruited.
08:13Guys like Richie Farmer and John Pelfrey and Darren Feldhouse and Sean Wiseman.
08:18And they ate it up.
08:20They wanted somebody to lead them and make them believe in things and Rick was perfect for that.
08:25I wanted to try to bring the place and the program that I loved, that I grew up loving.
08:29I wanted to try to help them rebuild and come back to where they belong.
08:32It became a bad for us in terms of our mindset.
08:39We did not want to be remembered as the guys who were there when Kentucky wasn't very good.
08:43Nobody expected this team to do what they ended up doing.
08:47They said, you're guys that are too small.
08:49They don't have enough talent.
08:50Nobody measured these guys' heart.
08:53And then he had the kid from New York City, the diaper dandy, the kid with the ability and the
08:59skills who he sold to.
09:00You come here, you start as a freshman, you become a vital part of our program, Jamal Mashburn.
09:07If you take these four young men, they're probably not going to beat four guys at the McBurney's YMCA on
09:1323rd Street in Manhattan.
09:14But you put Mashburn into the equation, now suddenly they were allowed to blossom.
09:19In a way, that's what made them even more endearing.
09:22And because they were able to do what they did cheerily through hard work,
09:26they got Kentucky back in college basketball.
09:33The East Regional Final at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.
09:38Duke was trying to get to the Final Four for the sixth time in seven years.
09:43A place the 29-6 Kentucky Wildcats hadn't been to since 1984.
09:50Now here we are in Philadelphia getting a chance to play Duke to go to the Final Four.
09:58Duke had won the national title.
10:00They had rolled through the entire year.
10:02They were ranked number one every week of the year.
10:04They were completely invincible to everybody's mind.
10:07This was a very, very veteran team.
10:08And this was a team that expected to win.
10:11Oh, we were so confident.
10:13As soon as we found out we were playing them, we were licking our chops.
10:16The majority of the media and probably the fans too expect to see a pretty good game,
10:21but that Duke would win this game somewhat convincingly, 8 to 12 points.
10:26I think that Kentucky was looked at going into that game as having a chance, a puncher's chance.
10:32It had been a nice story up until this point for Kentucky, but this was Duke.
10:38And this is where the story ended.
10:40I think the whole country perceived it that way.
10:43You know what?
10:44That happened, but Kentucky made them fight for it.
10:49But I think the most important thing is the people in the Kentucky locker room didn't perceive it that way.
10:56Tim Higgins puts the ball up.
10:57It's underway in the tap control of the Blue Devils.
11:00Everybody was afraid that Duke would go on a huge run right away
11:03and Kentucky wouldn't be able to get back in it.
11:05Well, Kentucky made sure that didn't happen.
11:07Kentucky was able to do and play their game by applying the pressure, getting some turnovers.
11:15Bobby Hurley having trouble with it.
11:17Taken away by Sean Woods.
11:19See if he goes all the way over Fred Hill.
11:21He dies.
11:22We rattled Bobby Hurley a little bit.
11:24We kept coming at him.
11:26You know, stole the ball from him a couple times.
11:30Helfrey.
11:32Ashburn in the three.
11:37All of a sudden, Kentucky's ahead, 20 to 12.
11:41They were letting it all hang out.
11:43To have that kind of success early, I think, sent a message
11:46that we're going to be right here all night.
11:49I don't think there was tension on the bench as much as there was attention.
11:54I think they had everybody's attention.
11:56Okay, they made a run.
11:58It's our turn to make our run.
11:59It was a question of who these guys think they are.
12:02We're Duke.
12:03They're not.
12:05After the first 10 minutes, Duke remembered who it was.
12:10And by halftime, it opened a 50-45 lead.
12:13Seven minutes into the second half, Duke's advantage had grown to nine.
12:18Hurley.
12:19Yes.
12:29That was when things started to look as though Duke was going to get a comfortable ride into
12:36another Final Four.
12:37That year when Duke got a lead, I felt pretty good.
12:41I thought we had them put away.
12:44I thought it was over.
12:45Because you've got to remember, that Kentucky team had overachieved already at that point.
12:48And it was hard to imagine a Duke team that was as good as this team, as experienced as they
12:52were, giving that back.
12:54Laitner fakes a three drive down inside, feeds it back to Hurley for three.
12:58Yes!
12:59Bobby Hurley drills his second three in the half.
13:01And the footballs go out front by 12 points at 67 to 55.
13:06And here comes a timeout, Kentucky.
13:09Hurley had a big three-point shot.
13:11And my heart sunk.
13:13And I thought, that's it.
13:15It's over.
13:16We're done.
13:17That's when Coach said we had to try to put them away.
13:21You know that they're going to come at you at their hardest at that time.
13:26And if you can beat them at that point, then you break them.
13:30I told them at this point, now is our time to make our run.
13:33They're ready to let us have our run.
13:35And I believe that...
13:36They're down 12.
13:38He has the chutzpah to tell them that we got them right where we want them.
13:42But that's the philosophy that his programs have played with.
13:47That 12 points is not the mountain that you have to climb that it used to be.
13:52Full court pressure and shoot to threes was it.
13:55He brought a lot of that philosophy into that gym down there and challenged guys.
14:00We knew that if we stayed with our game plan and kept doing the things that we've been doing all
14:05year long
14:06for the last two or three years, then we could get them in trouble.
14:08You'll have that 16-2 run.
14:10You'll have that 14-0 run.
14:11And you'll be back in the game.
14:12And we had done it over and over and over.
14:14We didn't have a fear of failure.
14:16You know, and that's one thing Coach Petino is good about.
14:19Don't be afraid to fail and let everything take care of itself.
14:22They were tougher than we were.
14:24And there was a huge play by Mashburn.
14:27Mashburn was a star for that period.
14:34Mashburn for three.
14:35Yes!
14:37Huge basket.
14:40And they would never turn a look at that.
14:43I felt the school pretty much had a lot of confidence.
14:46That was the only game that year where I can remember thinking,
14:50they just can't guard this guy.
14:53Mashburn was the key to the game.
14:54And we knew that coming into the game.
14:56And that's why we were pissed off.
14:57Because we realized that Mashburn was the only person that could actually beat us.
15:00I think it did kind of rock Duke back on its heels.
15:03Just when you're getting ready to say,
15:04well, it was a nice run, it was a nice season,
15:06it was a nice career for these guys.
15:08Then all of a sudden, they're right back in it.
15:09You could see that they had this renewed vigor,
15:12that they really were going after it more so than they had up until then.
15:15I think you started to feel a real electricity in the place at that point.
15:18That this was going to be a game Duke was really going to have to fight to win.
15:21And that's a great, that's a clever sign.
15:27Another one.
15:32Kentucky sliced the deficit to five with eight and a half minutes left.
15:36That was a point in the game when Duke's opponents usually crumbled.
15:40The Wildcats were playing free and loose.
15:44They realized that we weren't going anywhere.
15:47And that was frustrating.
15:49I saw Laidner and a bunch of guys going at it.
15:51But that happens every game.
15:53And when you can get somebody off their game and get them thinking about you,
15:58heck, that's what Duke does.
16:10I thought he had pushed me at the other end of the court.
16:13It was just a stupid reaction type of thing.
16:16And sure, I wanted to stomp a lot harder,
16:18but I knew that that would be really, really dumb.
16:25Christian Laidner's arrogance showed at that particular time.
16:28Yeah, I'm going to stomp on your stomach.
16:30What are you going to do about it?
16:31Timberlake was a fairly inconsequential freshman.
16:34And for him to bring that sort of thing out of Laidner,
16:37hey, we're getting to these guys.
16:38We're not going to let them literally step on us on the way to the final four.
16:42I wanted him to know that I wasn't going to take any crap.
16:45And there's nothing wrong with adding a little spice to the game.
16:49That was a pretty darn nasty situation.
16:51I don't know if he did it on purpose or not.
16:54Yeah, he did.
16:54Some people along the press were wondering
16:56if Laidner would be thrown out of the game.
16:59Kentucky will shoot the technical.
17:03A lot of people booing.
17:06I thought it was the right call.
17:07He stepped on him on purpose,
17:09but I don't believe that he flagrantly kicked him.
17:12I would have really gotten after the officials
17:14if I had seen it at that point in time, but I did not.
17:17I didn't realize that he literally was taking his foot
17:19and smashing it intentionally.
17:22Probably had he did that to anybody else on the team,
17:26they would have jumped up and probably would have been a scuffle.
17:28Because the rest of those guys were a lot meaner
17:30than the meaner Timberlake.
17:31He stepped on the only guy who wouldn't got up and ducked him.
17:36When I brought him over, I said,
17:37You know, one thing, you've never been stupid,
17:40but you were stupid in that play.
17:42You hope he doesn't lose his cool and gets rattled.
17:46But then on the other hand, that's Christian,
17:48and that's the fire that he has.
17:50This is part of the package that this guy is.
17:52He's gonna make all the shots,
17:54but he's also this punk,
17:56and that's part of how he gets under the skin of his opponent.
18:00While the practically perfect player had a most imperfect moment,
18:04Duke brushed off the distraction
18:06and showed a champion's poise by stretching its lead to 10.
18:22But Kentucky was full of bounce back
18:24as the Wildcats clawed their way to within three points of Duke
18:27with five and a half minutes to play.
18:41All of a sudden, everyone sat up a little straight.
18:43Everyone was at the edge of their seat.
18:46Where this game went from really, really good to transcendence
18:50was approximately the last five minutes of regulation
18:54and the entire overtime.
18:55When you see a high-scoring contest like that
18:57in the NCAA tournament,
18:59you know you're playing it on cylinders.
19:01And we couldn't stop Duke,
19:02and Duke had a very difficult time stopping us.
19:04I think everybody was kind of waiting,
19:06well, someone's gonna miss a shot,
19:07or somebody's gonna, you know, screw up.
19:10But no one was screwing up.
19:11It's like you're in a cage,
19:12and there's no one watching you.
19:14It's just your team against their team,
19:17and let's see who wins.
19:20That's what made it an incredible game.
19:23It's not Bird against Magic.
19:26It was Duke and Kentucky.
19:29Mm-hmm.
19:31The two teams rushed to the wire,
19:33Duke leading 93-91,
19:34and Kentucky desperate to draw even.
19:37Kelford angles right, goes to the baseline.
19:40Fits under the basket, deflected,
19:42Bellhouse puts it up and in!
19:44Yeah!
19:44And it's 93-93.
19:47All of a sudden,
19:49you're looking at a game
19:50that's coming down to the last shot.
19:53It's either win it or go overtime.
19:55It's tied at 93 with seven seconds left.
19:58Hurling out one-on-one.
19:59Hurling down the right side.
20:00Come on, Jumper is up.
20:01It will not go down.
20:02And Maxford rebounds.
20:03We got overtime.
20:06If you've ever seen a 15-round fight,
20:08and you didn't know who was going to win this fight,
20:10that was the beauty of this game.
20:12No question, it was a draw.
20:14And five more minutes was only right.
20:17Do either of these teams have five minutes or left in them?
20:21And what's going to happen now?
20:22I think everybody was just completely shocked
20:24that it had gotten to that point.
20:27We may be going to the Final Four,
20:29and now it becomes a belief,
20:31and it's the first time
20:32that thought process ever entered your mind.
20:35Duke couldn't take them out with their defensive pressure.
20:37Duke couldn't take it out with their arrogance.
20:40Duke's really in trouble.
20:41And that, to me, heightened the drama
20:43because it was so unexpected.
20:45This is our time.
20:45This is our tournament.
20:47This is our destiny.
20:48And these guys are trying to take it away from us.
20:53They get back.
20:54Fighting the tension and each other
20:56battled deep into overtime.
20:58The tension just kept building,
21:00wondering who's going to crack,
21:01who's going to crack,
21:02and nobody cracked.
21:03They just kept going and kept making shots.
21:06Wilfried.
21:11I was shocked that they kept making baskets.
21:13You know, that was something that we did.
21:15Grant Hill early again.
21:18Rick.
21:22Wilfried.
21:23Dace Hill in.
21:25Gets another one.
21:26It was just regular mundane plays,
21:29and that game became great plays.
21:31And you could just go through all those shots
21:33and just go, wow.
21:34Grant Hill inbounds.
21:36Leitner.
21:37Oh!
21:40Oh!
21:40Oh, my goodness!
21:42Leitner was awesome.
21:44He grabs the ball.
21:45He's in the air,
21:46and he fires it up off the backboard,
21:48and it rattles in.
21:49Leitner takes it strong to the hole,
21:51puts it up.
21:51He is good!
21:53I don't think he was actually trying to throw a foul.
21:57I remember saying to somebody that
22:00Kentucky's doing a great job defending him,
22:02and they're still not stopping him.
22:05Leitner's heroics had given Duke a two-point lead,
22:07100-98.
22:08But with 20 seconds left,
22:11Jamal Mashburn had an answer.
22:15Mashburn!
22:18He'll shoot one!
22:23Duke knew that Kentucky was going to Mashburn
22:26and couldn't stop it.
22:27He was able to score.
22:29He was able to get to the line.
22:30He feathered in that free throw.
22:32They had the lead again.
22:33I thought,
22:33and maybe for the first time,
22:36that Kentucky was capable of grabbing a lead
22:39and holding it.
22:41The last of Mashburn's 28 points
22:43gave Kentucky a 101-100 lead.
22:49They find Hurley.
22:52Now they find Leitner.
22:55And he is fouled by Mashburn.
23:00Five fouls on Jamal Mashburn.
23:04When they lost Mashburn,
23:06that's when you say he's going to recover from this.
23:09It was hard not being able to be involved in it,
23:12not to control really your own destiny a little bit
23:15because you're out of a game.
23:16I was consciously happy that Mashburn wasn't out there.
23:19We were feeling real good.
23:21When Mashburn found out,
23:22it was kind of like,
23:22okay, we got the game.
23:27Duke probably won.
23:40Timeout, Kentucky.
23:42Without Mashburn,
23:43I felt we were not organized.
23:44We really didn't know who to go to
23:46because we didn't have our go-to guy.
23:47I figured that they'd try to get something
23:49going to the basket
23:50and then kick it to an open shooter.
23:52None of the players out on the court
23:53were good enough to get their own shot.
23:56It's back to the guys
23:57that stuck around the program,
23:58the guys that nobody wanted before.
24:01In the huddle,
24:02the coach was talking,
24:03the diagramming,
24:03told us what we wanted
24:04and where he wanted us
24:05to get the ball on the floor.
24:06I was supposed to get it in to Sean.
24:08He was going to work down the middle
24:09and we were going to space out
24:10outside the three-point line.
24:11I wanted the last second shot
24:13to win or lose.
24:14I didn't want any time left.
24:16You just want to stop it.
24:17You don't know what's going to happen,
24:19but you want everyone to play defense.
24:21Let's do what we have to do
24:22to win this game.
24:23Let's get out of here.
24:26So it comes down
24:27to the four seniors
24:29who stuck around for Kentucky.
24:31Richie Farmer will inbound
24:33at the pride of Clay County.
24:35Darren Feldhouse and John Pelper
24:37are in.
24:37Sean Woods and Dale Brown,
24:39a JC transfer.
24:417.8 seconds remaining.
24:43John called my name.
24:44Richie called my name.
24:46Darren called my name.
24:47Everybody who was out on that court
24:48called my name
24:49and wanted me to pass the ball.
24:51Had he missed,
24:52they would have
24:53called his name
24:54and
24:55jumped him in the locker room.
24:57But hey.
24:59What?
25:00That was a terrible shot.
25:05But he made it.
25:08Terrible shot selection.
25:09My heart was in my throat.
25:10I couldn't believe
25:11that he was doing that.
25:12As he's taking it,
25:13you're saying,
25:13no!
25:14No, no, no.
25:15But yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:16You know what I mean?
25:17Oh, when it went in,
25:18it was the greatest thing.
25:20Here it goes.
25:21Down in the paint.
25:21His shot is a good!
25:24Two seconds!
25:25Gone one!
25:27And I can just remember
25:28jumping up and down
25:29thinking, you know,
25:30we've done it.
25:31We've done it.
25:31I just knew that we were up
25:33with two seconds to go
25:34and we were going to win
25:35this basketball game.
25:36How did he find the courage
25:38to take that kind of shot?
25:42You know,
25:43it went in, okay?
25:44But that was a terrible shot.
25:46A blackout
25:47for a split second.
25:49I couldn't believe
25:50he hit that shot.
25:51It hit me.
25:51There's a possibility
25:52that we could lose this game.
25:53Here we are.
25:54Number one,
25:55favored to win a championship
25:56and we lose our chance
25:58because of this shot right here.
26:00I was stunned.
26:02Everybody's in total disbelief
26:04because they thought
26:04Kentucky had done it
26:05and thought Kentucky had won.
26:07To beat the number one team
26:08in the country,
26:09is that what it's going to take?
26:10Sean Woods had hit
26:11an incredible shot
26:13to cap an incredible story
26:15and at the same time
26:17bring down Duke's dynasty.
26:19What else can possibly happen
26:21that hasn't happened already?
26:24They're just waiting
26:25for the king to die.
26:27Duke's going down.
26:30My wife is sitting next to this
26:31blue-haired old Kentucky
26:33grandmother
26:33who taps my wife in the hands.
26:36Don't worry, dear.
26:36Nothing can happen
26:37in 2.1 seconds.
26:40Wrong.
26:41You see Sean Woods,
26:43everyone's around him
26:44celebrating,
26:44and I remember him
26:45looking at the bench
26:47where Rick Pitino was,
26:48and he realized
26:50even though he'd made
26:51this great play,
26:52in some ways
26:53he had screwed up
26:54because he had left
26:55Duke 2.1 seconds
26:56to do something with.
26:57Can Duke answer?
26:59Well, we've done our homework
27:01and we know Duke can answer.
27:02We know Christian Leitner
27:03had hit a shot
27:03two years previous.
27:05In 1990,
27:07Duke played Connecticut
27:08at the East Regional Final.
27:09The Blue Devils,
27:10trailing by one
27:11with 2.6 seconds left,
27:13had one last chance.
27:16This is interesting,
27:17UConn not playing
27:18the passer.
27:19All right,
27:20here is Leitner
27:21with the shot
27:21and it scores!
27:23And two wins!
27:29That's not the call.
27:29We should have known then
27:31that this was a special play.
27:33Oh, he did it before.
27:34He was calm,
27:35cool, and collected
27:35as a sophomore.
27:36It never really changed.
27:39This time, however,
27:40Duke had to go
27:41all 94 feet
27:42with only 2.1 seconds left.
27:44and the residue
27:45of the last Kentucky basket
27:46lingering in their minds.
27:49First reaction
27:50when Sean's shot
27:51went in was anger.
27:52Not anger like
27:54we're going to lose,
27:56but that
27:57it was more of a
27:58playground anger,
27:59like
28:01you're not supposed
28:01to hit that shot.
28:03It could have sucked
28:04all the air out of Duke.
28:06And it might have
28:07if Krzyzewski
28:08didn't
28:09gather them back together.
28:11And the first thing
28:11he says to us is
28:13we're going to win.
28:14He said,
28:15if you think
28:15we're not going to win
28:16this game,
28:17get up and leave the hole.
28:18We're going to win this game.
28:19It's almost like
28:20it took somebody
28:20to say that,
28:21and Coach K did say it.
28:22We kept
28:23looking up at the scoreboard,
28:25looking at the time
28:25and score,
28:26and trying to figure out,
28:27does he really know
28:28what the time
28:28and score is here?
28:29It's just him
28:31to use whatever
28:32he's confronted with
28:34as fuel
28:35for a positive action.
28:37One of the best things
28:38about Coach K
28:39is he works
28:40on end-of-game situations.
28:41We knew exactly
28:42what we were going to do.
28:43We knew the home run play
28:44we were going to make.
28:45Luck favors
28:46the prepared man,
28:47and this is something,
28:48at least that pass
28:49was a pass
28:50that I made every day
28:51and started practice.
28:53Man,
28:53we tried this play
28:54against Wake Forest
28:55and it didn't work.
28:56Grant took the ball
28:57out through it,
28:59and the ball sailed,
29:00and Christian stepped
29:01out of bounds.
29:04The team that oozed
29:06so much confidence
29:07now bet everything
29:08on its faith
29:09in each other.
29:11One of the most
29:11critical things
29:12at the timeout
29:13was asking Grant Hill
29:15if he could throw
29:16the ball 75 feet.
29:18The Wake Forest moment
29:20came in my mind
29:21for a hot second,
29:22and I thought about
29:23Grant just don't
29:23throw a curve.
29:25Coach looked at me
29:26and said,
29:26can you make this shot?
29:27And I said yes.
29:29Leighton was the one
29:30guy on the floor
29:30who wanted to live
29:32that moment
29:32more than anybody else.
29:34And there's no question
29:35in my mind
29:36that when we left
29:37the huddle
29:38that that group
29:39believed it could
29:40do something good.
29:45Kentucky faced
29:46the ultimate dilemma.
29:47Guard the inbounder
29:48or double-team
29:49the Duke assassin.
29:51Billy, Herb,
29:52and myself,
29:53Bernadette,
29:53we all,
29:54that's what we talked about.
29:55Should we put a guy
29:56on the ball?
29:56Well, Kentucky
29:58had just lost
29:59its two best big people.
30:00We decided that
30:01we would take
30:02the guy guarding the ball
30:04and double-team
30:05Christian Leighton.
30:06Coach and our staff
30:07just didn't want
30:07to be caught
30:08underneath the basket
30:09one-on-one
30:10with a guy
30:10six-foot-eleven.
30:12And certainly
30:12at that point in time,
30:13Leighton was
30:13nine-for-nine
30:14from the field.
30:15So we decided
30:16to play five versus four
30:18and go for the steal.
30:19I was going to be
30:19the safety.
30:20Everybody else had a man.
30:26Lenny and I
30:27both looked
30:28at the Kentucky defense
30:29which was set
30:31and we thought
30:32they're not going
30:32to guard the inbound pass.
30:34So when I came out
30:35and saw that
30:35I was like,
30:36oh, okay,
30:36this is easy.
30:37I can just take my time
30:38and throw it right
30:40to where Christian's
30:40supposed to be.
30:41I was thinking
30:41I hope Grant
30:42makes a good pass
30:43this time.
30:44I hope he doesn't
30:44throw a curveball.
30:46And then after that
30:47you have to be aggressive
30:47and go get it.
30:49Grant Hill
30:49will make the inbounds play.
30:51I felt as soon as
30:52it left my hand
30:52it was a good pass.
30:55His dad might have
30:56been an NFL running back
30:57but he could have
30:58been a quarterback.
31:00Here's the long pass.
31:02It ultimately comes
31:04down to the catch.
31:05I go to jump
31:06to catch the basketball
31:07and I can't move.
31:08He caught it cleanly
31:09and I think
31:10we were all stunned.
31:11Leighton catches
31:12comes down
31:13triples.
31:13No, Christian.
31:14What are you doing
31:15jumping with the ball?
31:15You don't have time
31:16to do that.
31:17You're putting the ball
31:18on the floor.
31:19Puts down
31:20a dribble
31:20turns with a jumper.
31:21Where is the horn?
31:23One one thousand
31:23two one thousand
31:24when it left my hand
31:26I felt like it had
31:27a catch.
31:33There's the pass.
31:34The fact he had
31:34the balls
31:36to dribble it
31:37before shooting.
31:39It's the Leighton
31:40puts it up.
31:41Yes!
31:43Yes!
31:45Yes!
31:47Yes!
31:48Yes!
31:48Yes!
31:49Yes!
31:49Yes!
31:51Yes!
31:58Yes!
32:18The first thing I thought once the ball went through the net was, I can't believe God let
32:23me make another buzzer beater shot.
32:29That was kind of vintage.
32:31When everybody wanted to hug him, he wanted to run away.
32:37Imagine being able to tell people that I sent my team to a Final Four with the last second buzzer
32:42beater to end a great game.
32:43He got to do it twice.
32:44That's a credit to him.
32:45I mean, it was an unbelievable play and I'm just glad I had a little pardon.
32:51And Duke wins it, 104 to 103.
32:56That's just why they're number one.
32:59You didn't want to say, gee, did you see that?
33:01Well, of course you just saw that.
33:03That's when all this emotion from a whole evening of intensity just began to flow.
33:11My legs just went right from under me.
33:13I just fall straight to the floor, face down.
33:15I just kind of fell to the floor and realized that my basketball career pretty much was over.
33:21And Mike Krzyzewski was such a class act after that.
33:24And he looked down on the court and he saw Richie Farmer sprawled, face down.
33:27Krzyzewski says to himself, I feel guilty for having caused all this despair.
33:33And he went and consoled Richie.
33:40He said, you guys are not losers.
33:42He said, keep your head up because to life there were no losers.
33:45There was an appreciation, a deep appreciation of what that Kentucky team had done.
33:52Then Krzyzewski sought to console an entire congregation.
33:57He came over and he asked for my headphones.
33:59Because it was the last game of Cawood-Letford to have been there for 40 years.
34:04From Philadelphia, this is Cawood-Letford saying goodbye.
34:08Well, here's Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Great game, Mike.
34:12My respect for their team and their kids was at the ultimate level.
34:18I wanted to seek you guys out because all the Kentucky fans would be listening.
34:22And just to say how much empathy we have as a staff and team for the Kentucky kids.
34:29They were absolutely sensational.
34:31And I thought that showed a lot of class.
34:33And Coach K is very well respected in the state of Kentucky for that.
34:36And we'll always be remembered for that.
34:39I learned so much from him.
34:41Not only how to be a winner and a loser, but how to be gracious at that moment.
34:46Patino himself was left with the daunting task of comforting his distraught players.
34:54I'd like to...
34:56You know, we can all look back.
34:58I can't talk, man.
35:01We were out of it.
35:04In no shape, form, but one thing could anybody say to us was going to make us feel better about
35:09just what happened.
35:09Man, tears just ran down our eyes, you know, because...
35:15You know, you work so hard for something to, for one thing, to gain respect.
35:19This was the quietest, most devastated room that I'd ever been in.
35:24There were grown men sitting there just sobbing, crying.
35:28And Rick couldn't get him to stop.
35:30And finally, he pulled out the magazine cover from Sports Illustrated in 1989.
35:37I said, look, we've come from this moment of Kentucky shame to the mountaintop.
35:43I told the guys, don't let two seconds determine your basketball life because it's worth a lot more than that.
35:52And I said, if you don't think that you arrived at the mountaintop, you don't realize how much you put
35:57in to get there.
35:58I would rather have one than me.
36:03So I was walking around outside the spectrum, trying to gather my thoughts.
36:08And I almost literally bumped into the statue of Rocky Balboa.
36:15We made a lot of that, at least in the Kentucky media, about Duke being Apollo Creed and Kentucky being
36:23sort of Rocky Balboa.
36:24A lot of heart, very lovable, but clearly the underdog.
36:29It was a lot like the Rocky story, going the distance and not winning against Apollo Creed, but there was
36:36a sequel on Rocky.
36:37There wasn't a sequel for the Kentucky seniors, hailed as the Unforgettables.
36:42But ten days after that epic game, their jerseys were retired.
36:46These kids were the building block for the reconstruction of the University of Kentucky basketball program.
36:56As hard as they worked, as much as they were together, no matter what it was going to say on
37:01the scoreboard, they had every right to feel good about themselves.
37:04They sort of symbolized what all the good things about Kentucky basketball stood for.
37:13It was a very, very special moment, and the four guys were absolutely shocked.
37:18And I think they still are.
37:21I had dreams when I was a kid of being the most valuable player of the team, but I did
37:26not even dare dream about having my jersey retired.
37:30Normally, people who get their jerseys retired were first-team All-Americans, all-time leading scorers, but never once has
37:38a team been recognized for their accomplishments.
37:42But even immortality brought only small comfort.
37:48It was a tough thing, it really was, to be able to handle and deal with that.
37:51But you know what, that's what athletics is all about, is handling adversity.
37:54That's what life is, because life's not a bed of roses.
37:57Everybody's got their ups and downs, everybody's got a sad story.
38:00It just so happens that my story is peeing a little bit more off than everybody else's.
38:03I felt sorry for Richie and all those guys and Palfrey, because I know that they could have left and
38:10walked after probation, and they stuck it out.
38:13This is one case where the sum was greater than the parts.
38:16Together they gave back Kentucky, it's respect.
38:21While Kentucky celebrated the Unforgettables, Duke weaved its own indelible moment, overpowering Michigan to retain its national championship.
38:31Duke goes in, they beat the Fab Five in the championship game, but the only thing people really remember about
38:38the 92 tournament was that game and Christian Leitner's perfect performance.
38:43Heck, I can barely remember what happened at the Final Four. It all happened right there at the Eastern Regional
38:48Final.
38:50We won two championships, but nothing was quite like that moment when Christian hit that shot.
38:59Christian Leitner had one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in an NCAA tournament game. I mean, you can't
39:04be more perfect than perfect.
39:05It's a great feeling. I've never let it fade away. Whenever people want to talk about it, I don't mind.
39:18As soon as this game was over, there were so many media people coming up to each other and asking
39:23each other, is that the greatest game ever? Is that the best one you've ever seen?
39:26Bob Ryan came over to Lenny Elmore and he said, until tonight, I thought the greatest basketball game in the
39:33history of college basketball was 74 when you were part of the Maryland-North Carolina State triple overtime game.
39:41Well, I remember telling Bob that for sheer drama, for sheer impact, the Kentucky Duke game was the greatest game
39:48that I'd ever played in or witnessed.
39:51And that's the feeling everybody had. Bang, a horn goes off, a ball goes in, and now it's time to
39:57leave? I mean, we have to leave now? Isn't there another encore? If we light a match, will Bruce come
40:03out and do Born to Run?
40:04So many Kentucky fans, at the time, didn't get it. They just didn't get it. They would say in the
40:10next four or five months to come, over that Duke game yet, and they didn't realize that we were part
40:16of history.
40:19It ended as well as it could end, with Duke winning it, a tremendous basketball team, and us putting up
40:25the ultimate fight.
40:26I feel a little bit teary-eyed, I feel chills, and I've been removed from it.
40:35It truly was a spectacular time that captured everybody in the sporting world, and I was part of that.
40:49How lucky can you be? How lucky can you be?
41:00How lucky can you be?
41:01Very lucky.
41:03In the perfect game, Christian Leitner was a perfect 10. Twice.
41:08He made 10 free throws without a miss, and 10 shots without a miss.
41:11Really?
41:12And if he had missed just once, Duke would have lost.
41:16And then he capped his perfection with the shot that we all make in our driveway fantasies and playground dreams.
41:21And he made it against a team, Kentucky, that played well enough to win any game, except the perfect one.
41:29For ESPN Classics Battle Lines, I'm Rich Ozen.
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