Christian Laettner

Grant Hill Talks Sweet 16, Lonzo Ball, The Laettner Shot

... analyst and Duke great Grant Hill talks Butler’s chances, Kentucky’s improvement and the pass that changed his life with The Post’s Justin Terranova. Q: How can Butler upset North Carolina. A: It’s tough. North Carolina has a lot of talented, big bodies down low. Butler has to use their guys, who are versatile, and step outside and take advantage of the mismatches of having North Carolina guard on the perimeter. Butler has wins this season over Villanova (twice) and Arizona. The idea of Butler being scared isn’t going to happen. They know they can beat teams like this. Q: How has Kentucky improved from the team UCLA beat earlier this season. A: De’Aaron Fox is more aggressive and asserting himself offensively, Bam [Adebayo] is getting more and more comfortable and getting touches and making [himself] a threat offensively. Malik Monk struggles, but he’s so capable of going off and loves the big ...

Remembering Christian Laettner’s Shot Against Kentucky

... an East regional final that also included Laettner going 10 for 10 (31 points) and receiving a technical foul for stepping on the chest of Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake. Two games later, Duke won the national championship for the second consecutive year. Here’s a look back at Laettner’s March 28, 1992 shot against the Wildcats. These stories originally appeared in The News & Observer on March 29, 1992. Heaven loves one Devil. By Mickey Mc Carthy. PHILADELPHIA Christian Laettner dialed heaven, and the Lord answered with the sweetest shot this side of Minneapolis. If you believe in miracles, you believe in Duke. It was an unforgettable moment - a stunning climax in the high-stakes showdown for supremacy in the East Regional. And the Devils are going to the Promised Land again. Laettner seized this spectacular game in his meaty paws, turning a moment of desperation into a shot for the ages. With ...

25 Years Ago Today, Christian Laettner Hit Swish For The Ages

... come at you like an NBA team. George Laettner: It was so intense, back and forth, back and forth. And it just seemed to build. * * *. Laettner had a bucket inside early in the game to break Elvin Hayes’ all-time NCAA Tournament scoring record. Duke fell behind and needed a 15-2 run to take the lead. Thomas Hill and Hurley made three-pointers. Grant Hill was asserting himself offensively, but Duke had only a 50-45 lead at halftime. Coach K stood before his players at intermission and said …. * * *. Thomas Hill: I don’t remember. I don’t (laughs). Hurley: I have no recollection. Grant Hill: Hmmm. You know, I really don’t remember. Laettner: You don’t remember everything your coach said 25 years later, but I remember the message, or the message I was receiving. We knew we were going to be in a fight. At halftime, that was the message. We knew it could happen. We knew that they had the potential to hit shots and ...

Christian Laettner Decided To Troll Kentucky After Their Loss To Unc Photo

... second at 16.7 points — including a career-high 39 as Kentucky beat UCLA in the Sweet 16 to avenge the earlier loss — along with a team-high 165 assists. Sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe (12.1 points) improved in many areas and had emerged as a leader on and off the floor. Hawkins and Willis provided experience and became key contributors down the stretch. Kentucky’s defense had also improved in recent weeks, but foul trouble was a factor in losing to UNC. Now, next year’s core group could have a much different look — as it usually does in Lexington. Freshman forwards Wenyen Gabriel and Sacha Killeya-Jones seem likely to return along with 7-foot sophomore Isaac Humphries and 6-10 redshirt freshman Tai Wynyard. Freshman Hamidou Diallo (6-5) will play next season after practicing and watching this semester. They must mesh quickly with another highly touted recruiting class that at first glance could be the closest ...

Duke’s Christian Laettner Shouts Out North Carolina’s Luke Maye On Twitter After Winning Jumper Over Kentucky

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The Greatest Game Ever Played

... Woods just a little, is how close he came to being remembered as the player who hit the incredible shot that ended the Greatest Game Ever Played. MORE: Laettner apologizes for the stomp. In fact, the basket Woods scored with 2.1 seconds remaining, the half-hook he bounced off the board after a left-to-right drive across the lane, was a far more difficult shot than the one Laettner nailed as the buzzer sounded. Woods came so close to being a player whose last-second courage forges his name into tournament lore: Ainge, Reed, Edney, Thurman, Drew, Farokhmanesh. For the couple of minutes Duke's timeout lasted and the 2.1 seconds required to complete the Devils' Hill-to-Laettner connection, Woods was in their company. He was at the head of the class. It is easy to forget Woods scored 21 points and passed for nine assists on that evening. He did not go on to become a professional basketball star, so that shot truly was the apex of his basketball career. It just didn't figure to end so soon afterward. "The play was a simple pick-and-roll, a play we ran a lot for me to turn the ...

Reflecting On The Christian Laettner, Kris Jenkins Shots After Witnessing Them Firsthand

... came into his own as Villanova's unquestioned floor general following the graduation of Ryan Arcidiacono, averaging 14.7 points and 4.1 assists. Brunson was very efficient throughout his sophomore season - he shot 54 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and 87 percent from the foul line. Brunson should be one of the best players in all of college basketball next season, the type of player capable of lifting Villanova to the heights it has grown accustomed to over the past four years. Phil Booth. He played only three games this past season, but there's no disputing how important a healthy Booth will be for Villanova's fortunes next season. Booth played through left knee soreness two years ago as a sophomore and capped that season with a 20-point performance in the National Championship Game. He had arthroscopic surgery on the knee last May and by all accounts progressed nicely through the summer and fall. But the pain returned once the season started and Booth was shut down in late November. The hope at the ...

From Hill To Laettner, 25 Years Later

... The building that hosted the game is gone - the Philadelphia Spectrum was bulldozed in the name of progress in 2010. The players' playing days are long over. Some are in coaching or other basketball-related gigs. Others have moved on altogether. The sport, meanwhile, has hosted 96 more regional final games since that 1992 Elite Eight game between the Blue Devils and Wildcats and has crowned 24 more national champions. Yet we can't seem to let it go. As long as there is an NCAA tournament, those 2.1 seconds will live on, a moment so incredible and unforgettable that even all these years later, even after other game winners have stolen our attention for a time, the Laettner buzzer-beater is the only one we call The Shot. Despite both teams' rich histories, Duke entered the game as the prohibitive favorites. The Blue Devils had won their first national championship under coach Mike Krzyzewski a year earlier. The ...

Chris Chiozza, Christian Laettner And The Forgotten Supporting Actors

... the Blue Devils possessed one national title, accomplished the previous year. He gave them the chance to repeat, which they did. Florida has two titles and Chiozza’s running three-pointer kept the Gators hopes alive for winning a third. Quick quiz: who is the last school to win back-to-back national titles? For those outside of Gainesville, the answer is the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007. Those teams were the first to accomplish the feat since Laettner’s teams. Friday’s game may not have matched the level of talent and execution of two teams playing at the very top of their games in 1992, but it was EVERY BIT as compelling. For example, Florida overcame a double-digit first half deficit to take the lead by halftime. Not to be outdone, the Badgers also overcame a 10-point, second-half deficit to regain the lead. Twice. “What a wonderful college basketball game to be a part of,” said Gators Coach Mike ...