Classic Flashback: Duke '91

(Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from The Final Four, Reliving America's Basketball Classic, a book produced and published by the NCAA. For more on the book, click on the title.)

It was on the night of April 1, 1991, that Duke, having overthrown Nevada-Las Vegas two days earlier, finally was able to declare itself the king of collegiate basketball.

But was the NCAA championship clinched on that cool, windy night in Indianapolis, or did it actually occur way back on a humid afternoon in June of 1990?

Many Blue Devils, and virtually all of their fans, say the answer to that question is "both."

Certainly, the tangible evidence did not surface until the 72-65 win against Kansas in the Hoosier Dome was complete. That is what the official record will show-the win, and Grant Hill's antenna jam off a Bobby Hurley feed, and leg-dead Christian Laettner's 12 straight free throws, and Bill McCaffrey's 16 points off the bench, and Brian Davis' defense and a dozen other things.

What the official Final Four record book will not show is that perhaps none of it would have happened if Mike Krzyzewski had not withdrawn his name from consideration for the Boston Celtics' coach search almost a year earlier.

"We wouldn't have been here without him," Laettner, the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player, said of Krzyzewski that night in Indianapolis. "What kind of team we would have been, I don't know. But we wouldn't have been anything like this, I know that."

In truth, the Blue Devils were not entirely anything like that as late as a week before the NCAA run began against Northeast Louisiana, Iowa, Connecticut, St. John's and Nevada-Las Vegas and culminated with Kansas.

Duke won those six games by an average margin of 14 points. But in its last game prior to the NCAA Championship, the Blue Devils were reduced to shambles by archrival North Carolina, 96-74, in the championship game of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlotte, N.C.

"The low point of the season," Hurley recalled, a piece of the Hoosier Dome nets in one hand. "That was the lowest. You can't get lower than that."

On January 5, Duke began its Atlantic Coast Conference season with an 81-64 loss at Virginia. Eventually, the loss at Virginia and the ACC championship defeat to North Carolina brewed powerful incentive within the Blue Devils.

Following Virginia, Krzyzewski convened a practice session that ended with star freshman Grant Hill nursing a broken jaw and the remainder of the players united in a new mission.

"One of the things we learned that day was it's not good enough just to have some talent," Hurley said. "Talent's no good without the right kind of incentive."

Duke then won 12 of its next 13 games by an average margin of 20 points.

During that stretch we saw our potential," Krzyzewski said. "The way the guys responded to that loss at Virginia made me feel very positive about what they could accomplish."

The storm ended with narrow losses at Wake Forest and Arizona. After three more wins, the complete collapse against North Carolina hit. Historically, the losing team in the ACC title game does not fare well in the NCAA championship, particularly teams that lose by an unsettling margin of 22 points.

But Duke was different.

"Losing that game like that didn't depress us," Hurley said. "It made us mad at ourselves. But it didn't depress us because we knew we'd been just that low before and had bounced back. We thought back to Virginia."

For the second time in one season, Duke recovered from a one-sided loss to play a brilliant stretch of basketball-one that would end three decades of Final Four frustrations.

"The ninth time's the charm," Laettner said, jokingly referring to eight previous Duke trips to the Final Four.

It was obvious from the opening tip in Saturday's semifinal against the Rebels that the Devils had no trouble forgetting the 103-73 humiliation they suffered a year earlier in Denver against Nevada-Las Vegas in the championship game.

Hurley was the most glaring difference. Older, tougher and stronger, he did not wilt under the defensive heat that came from Nevada-Las Vegas' Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony. Just the opposite, in fact. He flourished-12 points, nine assists and only two turnovers.

And poetically, it was also Hurley who hit the biggest shot of the game, perhaps the biggest single shot in Duke history to that point. Duke was behind 76-71 with less than three minutes to play when Hurley found himself with the ball and shooting room. His three-pointer put the outcome back in doubt, and maybe created some in the Rebels.

Whatever, Duke forced a turnover. Davis then drove the lane, hit a shot, was fouled and converted the free throw. A free throw by Larry Johnson tied it at 77. Duke, on its last possession, went to Laettner. He was fouled with 12.7 seconds left, converted both chances and after a long miss by Hunt, Nevada-Las Vegas' undefeated season ended one game short of its target.

Duke celebrated in the most serious sort of way. But above the cheers and hugs, Krzyzewski could be heard screaming, "Our work's not finished! It's not finished!"

For artistic purposes, the Monday victory against Kansas paled. "I think players on both sides played a lot on guts," Krzyzewski said.

The Jayhawks, long-shots to go so far, were coming off an equally emotional semifinal win against North Carolina. "They had a little more left than we did," said Kansas star Mark Randall. "Not much, but a little."

Written by Caulton Tudor
Reprinted with the permission of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (c) MMI