Storyline: There are plenty of reasons to dislike Duke. One reason is Christian Laettner.
As the regular season of college basketball winds down and we approach March Madness yet again, there’s a general consensus that hasn’t changed from last season…or for years…. Duke is the most disliked team in all of college basketball.
Courtesy: Single Black Male
Duke is like the New England Patriots of the NFL or the New York Yankees of MLB. If you don’t love them, then you probably hate them with a passion. There’s seems to be no in-between.
Want proof about Duke? A 2010 survey by USA Today revealed that 49% of the country dislikes the Blue Devils and actively rooted against the Dookies in that year’s Final Four.
What’s funny is that Duke fans try to act like they’re NOT the minority. But facts show otherwise. For example, Duke ranked 38th in merchandise sales nationally (2010) according to the Collegiate Licensing Company. What makes this stat striking is that Duke WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP that year. There should have been a surge in sales.
Why is Duke so disliked? There are many reasons. One reason is the person you could call “The Face of Dislike,” Christian Laettner.
Laettner hit “The Shot” that lifted Duke past Kentucky in the 1992 East Regional Final. The irony is that “The Shot” shouldn’t have happened. Here are three reasons why.
- The Way Kentucky Played The Final Play
The 1992 Duke-Kentucky game may very well be the best game in the history of college basketball. The Blue Devils and Wildcats traded blows all game and played each other dead-even before UK’s Sean Woods hit an improbable runner to put the ‘Cats up 103-102 with 2.1 seconds left. The game was all but over.
Timeout Duke. When play resumed Grant Hill threw the ball down the floor to Laettner, who caught it, pivoted, and nailed the shot at the horn. But here’s the thing: THE SHOT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED.
Laettner had a perfect game going at the time (29 points, 9/9 FG, 10/10 FT), yet Feldhaus and Pelphrey of Kentucky let him CATCH the ball. The pass was made crystal clear by Hill, too, as then-Kentucky coach Rick Pitino opted not to put a player on ball.
Courtesy: Sports Illustrated
Mistake #1: Pelphrey backed about three feet off Laettner.
Mistake #2: Neither Feldhaus nor Pelphrey made an attempt to contest the shot from a 6-11 player who hadn’t missed yet on the night.
Swish. Ballgame.
The way Kentucky played the final play is one of the biggest blunders in the history of the sport. In a 2016 interview Kentucky coach John Calipari said: “Our (UMass) loss to Kentucky in ‘92 led to the Laettner game where Rick should have had the guy on the inbound. Remember that…?”
- By NCAA Rules Laettner Should Have Been Ejected
With less than minutes to go in the second half–and Duke having built a nine-point lead–UK player Aminu Timberlake attempted to draw a charge against a driving Laettner.
A blocking foul was called and Laettner began walking toward the charity stripe for his free throws. But his right foot took a bit of a detour, purposely stomping Timberlake in the chest.
Courtesy: phillippennington – WordPress.com
Laettner was assessed a technical, but was allowed to stay in the game–even though a NCAA rule clearly states that he should have been ejected. Ejection follows when there’s “a confrontation involving one or more players, coaches, or other team personnel wherein (but not limited to), a fist, hand, arm, FOOT (bolding and italics added), knee, or leg is used to combatively strike the other individual.”
Laettner should have been ejected, but the officials didn’t have the guts to eject the guy because he was having a remarkable game. With Laettner ejected, there’s no “The Shot.” Kentucky wins.
- Technical Fouls Didn’t Count As Personal Fouls At The Time
In today’s game a technical counts towards a player’s personal foul tally. But that rule didn’t exist in 1992. If the same rule were in place back then, Laettner would have fouled out–before he even attempted the shot.
Like Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory–the guy who always finds a “loophole” in the roommate agreement (a running joke on the sitcom)–Laettner beat the system, sliding by on a technicality.
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Bottom line: The Laettner Shot should have never happened.
But there are other reasons to dislike Duke. Read my upcoming columns to learn more reasons to dislike Duke.
