FACE OFF: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski (inset, left) and Louisville coach Rick Pitino (inset, right) will meet in an NCAA Tournament regional final today for the first time since Krzyzewski’s Duke team beat Pitino’s Kentucky team on a 3-pointer by Christian Laettner (celebrating above) in the 1992 East Region final. (
)
INDIANAPOLIS — The schools are not identical — though the coaches, seeds and stakes are.
On March 28, 1992, Duke and Kentucky battled in the East Region final of the NCAA Tournament, the region’s top two seeds dancing for a shot to reach the Final Four. It was one of the most memorable games ever, a 104-103 Duke overtime win, climaxed by Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beating turnaround jumper.
Today at Lucas Oil Stadium, for the first time since that night, coaching icons Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino will face off in the Midwest Region final. Krzyzewski still is at Duke, though Pitino has moved from Kentucky to Louisville. But the winner still gets to go to the Final Four.
“Obviously, it was probably one of the greatest games ever, and it was a tremendous shot,” Louisville guard Russ Smith said. “But it’s a new game, and hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself.”
The Midwest is the only regional final to boast a one-seed (Louisville) against a two-seed (Duke). Louisville enters having won 13 straight games by an average margin of 17 points, while Duke enters having gone 21-1 this season with forward Ryan Kelly in the lineup.
“Elite Eight games are huge anyway,” Krzyzewski said. “But this one, I think it’s like a national championship game.”
The game will feature two hot-shooting guards in Smith (27 points per game in the tournament on 55.3 percent shooting) and Duke’s Seth Curry (24 points per game on 50 percent shooting). There also is a battle of big men in Louisville’s Gorgui Dieng and Duke’s Mason Plumlee.
Things figure to be defensively driven, with Louisville’s pressuring unit surrendering 57.7 points per game in the tourney and Duke even better at 57.3 points.
Louisville, with multiple players dealing with colds, gave up 69 points in its win over Oregon on Friday, the most it has allowed during its 13-game winning streak. From the way Pitino spoke yesterday, it’s worth betting the Cardinals — whose health is improving — will be defending far better today.
“The guys basically defensively had a night off,” Pitino said, “so they’re going to be very, very fresh against Duke.”
The teams played on Nov. 24, with Duke winning, 76-71. However, Dieng — who Krzyzewski calls “one of the best players in the country” — didn’t play.
Pitino is aiming for his seventh Final Four and Krzyzewski his 12th, which would tie UCLA legend John Wooden’s record. Both Krzyzewski and Pitino spoke glowingly about the other yesterday, and Krzyzewski said their relationship has gotten closer since that classic 1992 game.
That contest featured greater talent than today’s will, boasting five NBA lottery picks: Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and Cherokee Parks for Duke and Jamal Mashburn for Kentucky.
The Wildcats had taken the lead with 2.1 seconds left in overtime when Sean Woods banked in a floater. But Hill delivered a three-quarter-court inbounds pass to Laettner, whose turnaround jumper won it for Duke — and capped a perfect game for Laettner, who was 10-for-10 from the field and from the free-throw line.
“At the moment [I scored], I thought we were destined to go [to the Final Four],” Woods, now the head coach at Morehead State, told The Post in a phone interview. “It used to be [painful], but it’s not anymore. It’s an appreciation.”
Hurley, now the head coach at Buffalo, sees a bit of a difference in Duke’s opponent this time around.
“I think [Louisville’s] a little more established than Kentucky [was] at this time,” Hurley said in a phone interview. “But [they play a] similar style of game. Louisville forces tempo and pressure.”
Pitino said he “often” thinks about the game.
“Not in a revenge standpoint, but just in a great game that I was happy to be part of,” he said.
Krzyzewski added: “It’s one of those moments in time that helped define our sport.”