UConn Believe It!
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Duke’s final “speed bump” on the road to history turned out to be a barricade in blue and white, a pothole, not posterity.
Unbeatable, invincible, indestructible?
Why yes, Connecticut was all of the above.
Twenty years after Magic and Larry took the sport to the outer limits, the Huskies and Blue Devils provided an incredible basketball bookend Monday night before a crowd of 41,340 at Tropicana Field.
In a drop-dead finish, Connecticut beat Duke, 77-74, to win its first national title, but only after guard Trajan Langdon, a fifth-year senior who was looking for game-tying points No. 26, 27 and 28, fell to the floor in a heap as he tried to navigate through a sea of Connecticut arms and legs as time expired.
Instead of a Duke coronation, the court was soon filled with so-called jesters, a Connecticut team that supposedly had little chance against a coach who is drawing comparisons to John Wooden; against a program that had put the wood to the Huskies time and again, most miserably in the 1990 regional finals with Christian Laettner’s cold-blooded jumper in overtime.
Laettner was in the house again Monday, as a spectator.
Not this time, Christian.
Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun, the 56-year-old son of a merchant seaman who won 550 games in 28 years before reaching his first Final Four, tried to say afterward that this moment will not profoundly change him.
“I’m not a better coach than I was three weeks ago, no worse,” Calhoun said.
Then he confessed: “Tonight, if you hear a loud yell, that would be me.”
From the beginning, Connecticut never bought the premise that it was inferior to Duke.
“We truly knew we could beat them,” Calhoun said.
How good a game was it?
“One of the great games I’ve ever been involved in,” Calhoun said.
The second half seemed to be suspended in time as the nation’s two top teams hurtled toward an incredible finish. The game was tied seven times after intermission, Connecticut’s biggest lead no larger than six.
The story lines spilled forth:
* Connecticut forward Richard Hamilton, the silky smooth forward, scoring a game-high 27 points and outplayed Duke center Elton Brand, the national player of the year.
* Ricky Moore, Connecticut’s sophomore guard, scoring 13 first-half points in a playground reminder against William Avery, his former high school teammate back in Augusta, Ga.
* Connecticut guard Khalid El-Amin, who played only 10 minutes in the first half because he was so ineffective, coming back to make some dramatic shots and two huge free throws.
* Langdon, the last holdover from that 13-18 Duke season of 1994-95, doing everything he could to go out on top, but in the end getting whistled for traveling when it counted most.
* Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, hobbling on a hip that will require replacement next Monday, trying to will his team toward destiny.
Duke appeared cooked when Hamilton’s three-point basket with 3:28 left put Connecticut up, 73-68.
But after a Blue Devil free throw trimmed the lead to four, Langdon sucked the remaining air out of Tropicana Field when his three-point basket with 1:43 left cut the lead to 73-72.
El-Amin’s scoop shot extended the lead back to three with a minute left, Avery’s two free throws cut it back to one seconds later.
After El-Amin threw up an airball with 23 seconds left, Duke took possession and raced down court with a chance to win.
“I heard Coach K tell Trajan to go get the ball,” Moore said.
With Moore sticking to his jersey, Langdon tried to make a spin move in the lane but was called for traveling with 5.4 seconds left.
Duke fouled El-Amin immediately. The stocky guard, who had more turnovers (six) than assists (four) when he stepped to the line, made two free throws, forcing Duke to take a three-point shot.
Langdon, who made five of 10 three-point shots in his last game, ended up with the ball, but fell down before he could get off a shot.
One television announcer screamed that Connecticut had “shocked the world,” an odd statement given that Connecticut finishes the year 34-2.
As Connecticut players whooped and hollered, a security guard, thinking El-Amin was a fan who had crashed the party, tried to haul the guard off the court.
Calhoun stalked around, almost in a daze. This wasn’t the schoolboy victory lap Jim Valvano made when his North Carolina State team stole the title from Houston in 1983.
This was the look of a man who, after years of close calls and painful losses, wasn’t sure how to act. El-Amin, who escaped ejection, said he looked at the faces of Duke players as they left the court.
“They just looked like they were shocked,” El-Amin said. “Shellshocked.”
It seemed an apt description.
Connecticut’s victory ended Duke’s 32-game winning streak and left the Blue Devils with a 37-2 mark.
Instead of taking its place with some of history’s best teams--the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers or any of Wooden’s best UCLA squads--this Duke team will now be compared with all-wordly teams that didn’t quite close the deal: Nevada Las Vegas in 1991, Houston in 1983, Georgetown in 1985.
Duke handled the defeat with class. No crying about the referees, no sour grapes.
“Obviously it was a great game,” Krzyzewski said. “A terrific game. I’ve been fortunate to be in a bunch of terrific games. We’ve won some, some we’ve lost. I’m proud of being involved in this game.”
The legend for Coach K stands at two national titles and counting. At 52, with a new hip on its way, there will other nights, other titles, perhaps as soon as next season.
But Monday was Connecticut’s night, New England’s first NCAA title since Holy Cross won it all in 1947.
Duke posterity aside, what was the harm in that?
FINAL FOUR BY THE NUMBERS
1: National championships for Connecticut and Jim Calhoun
2-6: Duke’s record in national championship games
17-8: UConn’s advantage in bench scoring
41-31: UConn’s advantage in rebounding
145: Points for MVP Richard Hamilton, the tournament’s leading scorer.
1985: Last time a Big East Conference team won the title (Villanova)
32: Consecutive Duke victories before loss to Connecticut
COVERAGE
MARCH GLADNESS: Remembering the top 10 moments of the tournament with facts and figures. Page 6
CLUTCH: Khalid El-Amin comes through down the stretch for Connecticut. Page 7
GAME REPORT: Charting the lead, half-by-half breakdown and the box score. Page 7
BITTER END: Brilliant career ends on a sour note for Duke’s Trajan Langdon. Page 8
TV: To its credit, CBS didn’t get in the way of a great basketball game. Page 8
