I just checked my TiVo’s schedule of upcoming events and saw a couple of shows in there that you might not want to miss. Next Thursday, 2/16, at 2pm, ESPN Classic is airing the great 1992 Duke-Kentucky game, also known as the Laettner game. This is the NCAA Regional Final game where Laettner stomped (stepped, really) on the chest of Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake and hit every shot he took including the classic game-winner that we’ve all seen a million times. This is one the few games in my life where I can remember vividly where I was and who I was with when I watched it. I’m getting fired up just thinking about seeing it again.
And if that’s not enough, the very next day, 2/17, at 2pm ESPN Classic is airing the 1991 Duke-UNLV Final Four game. The Kentucky game from 1992 rightly gets a lot of attention and is called possibly the greatest college basketball game ever, but don’t forget this 1991 game. For the youngsters, UNLV had one of the most powerful and dominant college teams ever. They steamrolled Duke by 30 points in the 1990 NCAA Championship and then cruised through the 1991 nearly unchallenged. They played a fairly weak schedule, but blew everyone out, with the exception of Arkansas, who was also in (or near, really) their heyday. Duke got their chance for revenge in the 1991 Final Four and most thought it would end just like their previous matchup. But Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner had grown up quite a bit in their junior year (and they now had a freshman named Grant Hill) and they went on to pull off one of the great upsets of college basketball history. It’s funny to think of it that way since those 1991 and 1992 Duke title teams are considered some of the best teams ever, but that just tells you how good that UNLV squad, with Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Moses Scurry, Richard “The Fixer” Perry and Anderson Hunt, was.
I am pumped to watch these games. ESPN Classic is the shizzle.
Leave a Reply