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ATLANTA — At first glance, it seemed these brackets of the South Regional had been crafted through pomp and providence. At the top was the No. 1 seed in the whole NCAA tournament, Kentucky. At the bottom, the No. 2 seed in the region, Duke.
Duke-Kentucky. Or, depending on geography, rooting interest and diploma, Kentucky-Duke. Twenty years ago, they collided in Philadelphia and the result was one of the greatest games the sport has ever seen, the game Christian Laettner ended with a jump shot at the buzzer and a sprint into forever. Yes, there certainly was a spirit of history attached to this bracket, and theater.
Lehigh got in the way of all of that.
But when the 15th-seeded Mountain Hawks booted the Blue Devils out of the tournament last week in Greensboro, they didn’t empty this quadrant of the bracket of the compelling theater that memories of that game always elicits.
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Because what we have tonight, in so many ways, is a poetic matchup that beautifully echoes that fabled game, an Indiana-Kentucky challenge at the Georgia Dome that offers the distinct whiff of something familiar.
In 1992, it was Kentucky rising like a phoenix from the ashes of scandal, a team that was dubbed the Unforgettables and lived up to their billing, a gaggle of Kentucky kids and one New York star, Jamal Mashburn, who had gone from a brush with the NCAA death penalty to 1.8 seconds shy of the Final Four. And in 1992, Duke was the sport’s matchless royalty, defending champs, maybe the last college basketball team to inspire dueling feelings of devotion and derision.
Twenty years later, Kentucky has assumed Duke’s role, the perennial powerhouse with the shifting cast of characters and the polarizing coach (just sub John Calipari’s name for Mike Krzyzewski’s) that has looked, oftentimes, unbeatable this year. And playing the part of Kentucky now is Indiana, their longtime heartland enemy, the Hoosiers having endured a shame of their own under ex-coach Kelvin Sampson and the sting of three seasons that yielded a most un-Hoosier-like 28-66 record.
Oh, and just to add a little kick to the shins: While the Hoosiers were trying to dig themselves out of the Bloomington quicksand the last couple of years, their little cousins from Indianapolis, the Butler Bulldogs, were charming the country and making one improbable dash to the national title game, and one impossible one.
And now, this.
“When you’re coming off what we’ve dealt with the last couple of years, you have no choice but to treat every game as the most important game,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said yesterday. “If you do that enough, it leads to moments like this for these guys to play in an environment like this.”
It is an environment that will be charged thanks to the presence of Kentucky, which offers every conceivable element of intrigue: the most talented roster in the sport, one of the most talked-about coaches in the sport, and a fan base that has already planted itself in almost every hotel and restaurant within the city limits.
“Kentucky is one of those places, you’re supposed to win every game by 25,” Calipari said. “If you’re winning by 15, what’s the issue? What’s going on with the program? If you, God forbid, lose one, how can we lose this game? And I love our fans. They’re crazy. They watch the game tapes three times. I don’t watch the game tapes three times. But that’s coaching and playing in Kentucky.”
For the longest time, Indiana was the only team to beat Kentucky this year, a wonderful thriller in Bloomington in December that ended when Christian Watford beat the buzzer with a 3 for a 73-72 win that served as an announcement the Hoosiers — winners of five national titles and 20 Big Ten titles — were back. For real. For good.
And now there is this: a rematch that will keep the country’s two most rabid basketball states on edge until tip-off at around a quarter to 10 tonight, an opportunity for one nearly broken program to try to drive a dagger through the heart of the sport’s royalty. Twenty years ago, that storyline came close to fruition, and fell just short, but they gave us a game for the ages trying.
A game like that wouldn’t be a terrible way to spend a Friday night, all these years later.