1991-92

NATIONAL SCENE:

Duke's fifth straight trip to the Final Four featured a semifinal round game with Kentucky that will be remembered forever as one of college basketball's best, and a final round game against one of the sport's most heralded freshmen starting five ever.

Underdog Kentucky overcame double-digit leads in the second half to force the game to overtime, and led 103-102 with 2.1 seconds left. Inbounding under his own net, Duke's Grant Hill heaved a pass to teammate Christian Laettner who hit a fade-away foul-line jump shot as the buzzer sounded, giving the Blue Devils (34-2) a chance to defend it's national title.

Michigan's "Fab Five", ranked sixth in the Midwest, shook first-year jitters and challenged for the school's second national title in three years. That is, until the fourth quarter of the championship game when the Wolverines shot a less than fabulous 29 percent from the field and watched the Blue Devils turn a one-point halftime deficit into a 71-51 victory.

The season was also the last for UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian who bolted the PR-challenged Running Rebels to coach the NBA's Spurs.

Rules change

: Shot clock reset when ball hits rim rather than when it leaves players’ hands.

ALL-AMERICANS                   SCORING & REBOUNDING LEADERS:                      

Second Team

·         Byron Houston, Oklahoma St.

·         Bobby Hurley, Duke

·         Don MacLean, UCLA

·         Anthony Peeler, Missouri

·         Malik Sealy, St. John's

• Walt Williams, Maryland

FINAL POLLS:

Final AP Top 20

Writers' poll taken before tournament.

NCAA TOURNAMENT :

All-NCAA Tournament Team

Notes

• Virginia (20-13) def. Notre Dame (18-15) to win the NIT.

• UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian was forced out after averaging 30.7 wins for the past 10 seasons.

• Prairie View finished 0-28, the first team since 1955 to go winless.

• UCLA broke Arizona’s 71-game home win streak, 89-87.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

1992
Sergei Belov, Player
Louis P. Carnesecca, Coach
Cornelius L. Hawkins, Player
Robert J. Lanier, Player
*Alfred J. McGuire, Coach
John (Jack) T. Ramsay, Coach
Lusia Harris-Stewart, Player
Nera D. White, Player
*Phillip D. Woolpert, Coach

Duke Does It Again

During halftime of the 1992 NCAA championship game, after coach Mike Krzyzewski had knocked over a blackboard in anger, two Duke players told everyone to shut up and listen.

 

Christian Laettner

Surprisingly, seniors Christian Laettner and Brian Davis didn't talk. Instead, the Blue Devils were chastised by two underclassmen -- Bobby Hurley and Thomas Hill.

"They were setting the stage for the future," Laettner said. "They were establishing their leadership for next season. And we listened to them."

Obviously. Once the volatile locker-room session was over, Duke played with the emotion and ability of a champion. The Blue Devils overwhelmed the dazed freshman of Michigan, outscoring the Wolverines 41-20 in the second half and coasting to a 71-51 triumph at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

But even securing a place in sports history by becoming the first team to repeat as national champions since UCLA in 1973 doesn't mean the end to this amazing seven-year run atop college basketball.

The game's most dominant school since the great UCLA clubs of the John Wooden era isn't ready to back off. The Blue Devils have the talent to challenge for a third consecutive title in '93, although their success will depend greatly on the development of Laettner's inexperienced replacement, rising sophomore Cherokee Parks.

"Every time a senior leaves, he keeps thinking that will end the winning," said Laettner, the most honored player in college basketball this year and the pivotal player on this championship team. "But it doesn't happen that way."

"There is always a lot of talent to step up. A lot of kids who have room to develop. A lot of kids they will bring in to help. It's all because of Coach K. He is the backbone. He has everything planned out so well. They'll be a great team next year."

That greatness was established once again by the way Duke played in the second half. Laettner was a big part, scoring 14 points after a dreadful first half (five points, seven turnovers, 2-of-8 shooting).

But the halftime sideshow ignited the younger players too. Sophomore Grant Hill drove the Wolverines crazy with his dazzling baseline penetrations and easily could have been the tournament's most outstanding player.

But that honor went to Hurley, an ever-improving junior who overcame poor shooting (3-for-12) with five second-half assists and almost flawless ballhandling. And junior Thomas Hill, normally one of the quietest Devils, backed up his halftime talk with nine of his 16 points.

Hurley and the two Hills will be the foundation of the 1992-93 club. Hurley is the best point guard in college basketball, and he'll be even more assertive now that Laettner is gone. Grant Hill has the ability to be a high NBA draft choice, and Thomas Hill should become the team's No. 1 scorer. But unless Parks can overcome a disappointing freshman season and provide the inside scoring and rebounding usually supplied by Laettner, Duke might not be good enough to knock off Michigan next season.

After all, the Wolverines' five starting freshman still are youngsters. As long as they remain in school, they'll be favored the next three seasons to be No. 1.

"If we meet again (next year), I think it will be a great game," said sophomore Antonio Lang, another returning Duke starter. "They could be (in the finals) three times. But there is no reason we can't get back again. I like our chances."

It's difficult to argue with Lang. How can you pick against Duke? The Blue Devils' accomplishments in this era of basketball parity and high-pressure financial stakes are dazzling.

Seton Hall coach P. J. Carlesimo says the Blue Devils' achievements "rival what UCLA did. They haven't won as many championships as Wooden, but to get to the Final Four so many times in a row (five straight) is unbelievable. No one should be able to do that, but they have."

Krzyzewski is embarrassed by the growing comparisons with Wooden.

"I don't think it is equivalent in any way, shape or form," he said. "How can anyone compare with him (or compare) going to Final Fours with winning all those championships like he did?

"What we have done is a neat accomplishment, but it's not on the same level as winning the whole thing. I feel very uncomfortable talking about it."

But it will be difficult now for Krzyzewski to deflect the praise. The members speak too loudly - those back-to-back titles; five consecutive Final Fours, and six in seven years; the first team since North Carolina, in 1982, to be ranked No. 1 all season and then win the national championship.

Only UCLA, Ohio State and Cincinnati can equal Duke's three consecutive championship-game appearances, and just Wooden, with nine, can top those five consecutive Krzyzewski teams in the Final Four.

"He is a great coach who recruits talented players and puts them into a system that takes full advantage of their talents," Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. "Other coaches understand how difficult it is to do what he has done.

"I never thought anyone could put this kind of string together."

To understand how the string continues, just look at the second half against Michigan.

"This is the greatest year I've ever had as a coach," Krzyzewski said after those 20 minutes. "We deserve this championship. We earned it."

The Blue Devils earned it with intense defense (Michigan shot 29 percent in the second half), with aggressive rebounding (they edged Michigan, 37-35, on the boards) and with a fire that had been missing for much of the NCAA Tournament.

"We were fatigued and didn't have much left," Thomas Hill said. "It's ironic that we talk about courage all the time, and this is what won it for us in the second half."

Confronted with defenders who challenged every pass and tried to block every shot, Michigan's youngsters finally lost their poise after showing so much maturity in earlier NCAA Tournament games. The Wolverines had been winning on the strength of good shot selection and aggressive rebounding. But once they fell behind midway in the second half, their inexperience emerged.

"We were trying to get four points on each possession," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. "So we launched some shots we shouldn't have, which led to a total unraveling."

Duke can do that to a team because of its perimeter quickness and ability to play the passing lanes. For the most part, the game was sloppy and ugly, but that's what Duke wants. Duke's style is predicated on throwing off the timing of opponents and making them struggle.

"We never got into the offensive flow of the game in the second half," Fisher said. "We had to struggle just to get off a shot."

But all Fisher had to do was look back to last Saturday, when Duke put the same kind of defensive blanket on Indiana in the semifinals. The Hoosiers went scoreless for six minutes in the second half and were overwhelmed by an 18-0 Duke run that resulted in a 81-78 triumph. Indiana scored 36 points in the half, shooting just 41 percent.

But defense was only part of Duke's triumphant story. Krzyzewski has built his club around mobile perimeter players who present matchup problems for opponents.

The Blue Devils had a quickness advantage over the taller Wolverines, and the Hills were able to exploit this edge by driving to the basket and either passing off or scoring. Going into the game, Krzyzewski was convinced that Grant Hill's penetrating ability was a particular key -- and, as usual, he was right.

The championship game served as a coming-out party for Grant Hill, who had been slow to come back from a late-season ankle sprain.

"You re just seeing a glimpse of how good he can be," Duke assistant coach Tommy Amaker said. "We thought he was the best player in high school two years ago. Now, when he becomes a junior, he will be ready to step up his level of play another notch.

"That is how it is around here. Guys are ready to take over once the seniors ahead of them leave."

Whether Parks is ready to take over for Laettner is another question. Krzyzewski had hoped Parks would play 15 or 20 minutes a game this season.

Instead, Parks was so inconsistent during the regular schedule -- "I kind of withdrew and laid back," he said -- that at times he fell out of the substitution pattern. But he played better in the postseason, and Krzyzewski hopes he uses that as a confidence builder.

"I'm no Christian Laettner," said Parks, who was one of the nation's most highly recruited big men two years ago. "I'm not going to sit down and watch game films so I can be just like him."

Parks lacks Laettner's aggressiveness and feistiness, but he has good offensive skills around the basket. But he won't be nearly the same kind of outside shooter, which means the Hills and Hurley will have to do more scoring.

"Three in a row -- wouldn't that be something?" Thomas Hill said. "But we've already shown them we are special. People said you couldn't win two in a row, and we proved them wrong. Why can't we do it again?"