It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since Christian Laettner launched what was at the time the most famous shot in college basketball history. I was at the Spectrum on March 28, 1992, with my parents to watch Kentucky play Duke in the East Region final. I was 10 years old and a huge fan of Bobby Hurley, Duke's All-American junior point guard that year. I wanted to see Hurley and Duke win that night to advance to the Final Four and defend its national championship. It's important to note here I've never been a Duke fan, I was just a big Hurley fan. Growing up playing basketball it was very easy for me to identify with the scrappy, undersized point guard from Jersey City.
My parents and I were sitting behind the basket on the opposite end of the floor from where Laettner hit his shot. My mom was the women's basketball coach at West Chester University and used her connections with the women's coach at the University of Pennsylvania to get us three tickets to the game. Needless to say, I was pumped. It was the first time I had seen Hurley play in person and it was an Elite Eight game on top of it.
I honestly didn't think the game would be as close as it was. I thought Duke would win somewhat easily. Obviously, that wasn't the case. I remember growing more and more anxious the longer Kentucky hung around. Once the game went to overtime, all bets were off. It was anyone's game and I was just hoping my guy could make enough plays for his team to win.
(Sidenote: Hurley was awesome that game. Of course, all anyone remembers is Laettner's shot and the fact he was a perfect 10 for 10 from the field and 10 for 10 from the foul line. But Hurley had 22 points and 10 assists and was the only player to play all 45 minutes of the game.)
Sean Woods hit the shot to give Kentucky a 103-102 lead with 2.1 seconds left in overtime right in front of us. I was bummed but remember thinking there was still time left for Duke to win the game. As soon as Duke broke its timeout huddle, I looked for Laettner, who was standing near the baseline in front of the Duke bench. I figured Duke would go to him in that spot and of course it did. The rest is history and I'll forever be grateful to have witnessed it firsthand.
At the time, I didn't think much of Kentucky coach Rick Pitino not putting a man on the inbounder, Duke's Grant Hill. That decision has been second-guessed over the years and rightfully so. It allowed Hill to have a clean line of vision and make an unobstructed pass to a flashing Laettner at the opposite foul line.
In an ironic twist, I was also there for the shot that unseated Laettner's as the most iconic in college basketball history. Fast-forward 24 years to last April 4, 2016, in Houston and Villanova's Kris Jenkins hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat North Carolina, 77-74, in the National Championship Game. I grew up a big Villanova fan, as did my dad before me. His dad went to Villanova and the whole family has pulled for Villanova ever since.
We didn't plan to go to the Final Four that year but once Villanova beat Kansas in the Elite Eight, we made the split-second decision to fly to Houston the following weekend. It turned out to be one of the better decisions we ever made. My wife, Amy Fadool, got us game tickets for the national semifinals as well as a flight to Houston -- I'll never be able to repay her for that. I'd say thanks again to her here, but she's a University of Kentucky graduate and undoubtedly won't read anything having to do with Laettner's shot in 1992.
In yet another ironic twist, the opposing coach's decision to not guard the inbounds pass played a big role in Jenkins' getting a clean look in the 2016 title game. Roy Williams chose not to put a man on Jenkins, allowing him to saunter up the floor next to Ryan Arcidiacono and eventually get a clean catch-and-release from 25 feet.
I often wonder how many people other than my dad and I were there for both the Laettner shot in 1992 and the Jenkins shot in 2016. Surely a number of media members were at both games. Even though I work in the media now, I wasn't at either game in a working capacity. I was simply a fan who lucked out twice and ended up seeing the two most significant shots in the history of the NCAA Tournament.