INDIANAPOLIS — This is what the Ali-Frazier I Fight of the Century must have sounded like, a deafening assault on the ears. In this corner, wearing blue trunks, the challenger, John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats. In the other corner, wearing red trunks, the defending champion, Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals.
The latest college basketball Fight of the Century, the heavyweight championship of one another, of the state, the Maddest possible March night inside a madhouse called Lucas Oil Stadium. A Kentucky Derby grudge match race to another national championship waiting at a finish line in Arlington, Texas. Churchill Ups, and Churchill Downs.
It only seemed as if the entire Commonwealth had crammed into this basketball house of worship and decorated it in blue and red, more blue than red, but only slightly, if that. One of those epic death struggles in which every possession mattered. In which every player played as if it were his last college game. In which an entire breathless, hoop-hysterical state was stricken with sweaty palms and racing hearts from start to finish.
Every time Kentucky threatened in crunch-time, Luke Hancock, senior sharpshooter with the big-game pedigree, answered.
A left wing 3.
“Luuuuuuuke.”
A right wing 3.
“Luuuuuuke.”
A drive to the basket — “Luuuuuuuke” — for a pair of free throws.
Two more free throws.
“Luuuuuuuke.”
It was 66-59, Louisville, 4:33 to the Elite Eight.
And here Kentucky, without 7-footer Willie Cauley-Stein (ankle) in the second half, made its stand.
Here Kentucky owned the boards.
Alex Poythress rejected a driving Russ Smith. Julius Randle hit a lefty bank. Hancock lost the ball. Poythress converted a three-point play.
66-66, 2:13 left. Pandemonium inside the March madhouse.
Poythress sank a free throw. Smith answered with a short J. Randle fired a pass to Aaron Harrison who swished a 3 from the left corner.
Kentucky 70, Louisville 68. 39.1 seconds left.
Pitino called timeout. 31.5 seconds left.
Video review on out-of-bounds play to Louisville.
15.3 seconds left, 12 on the shot clock.
Bedlam inside the March madhouse.
Officials huddle near midcourt.
Louisville ball.
Wayne Blackshear fouled off the inbounds.
14.2 seconds left.
Miss. Roar. Make.
Randle to the foul line.
Make. Make. Roar. 13 seconds to Michigan.
Smith looked for Hancock, faceguarded by Poythress, from the left wing for a 3 for the tie. Short.
“It just missed,” Smith said.
Kentucky 74, Louisville 69.
“It’s the end of an era,” Pitino said.
The Thrill of victory for Kentucky, the agony of defeat for Louisville.
“Told ’em before the game, ‘You’ll get punched in the mouth, and you’re going to taste blood,’ ” Calipari said. “And they’ll fight, or brace yourself for the next shot. They fought.”
Whatever bill of goods Pitino and Calipari had tried so hard to sell their players about approaching this not as a holy War Between the Hates but rather as another NCAA tournament basketball game was exposed as a lie the minute the sides laid eyes on one another.
Big, Bad Kentucky — viewed in Louisville and select other corners as the Evil Empire Yankees of college basketball — entered the ring (sorry, the court) first, both to a standing ovation from the apoplectic sea of blue scattered everywhere, and an accompanying howl of boos. A couple of minutes later, Louisville arrived, both to a standing ovation from the apoplectic pockets of red scattered everywhere, and an accompanying howl of boos.
It wasn’t until 10:02 that the main event following the Michigan 73, Tennessee 71 undercard was finally on.
Game of Thrones.
Pitino and Calipari sat in chairs like the kings of their respective castles that they are. Just not for long. Pitino, in a black suit — Darth Pitino to the Kentucky mob — appeared as if he was going to step on the court and play defense with his starting five.
Neither of the celebrated coaches missed an opportunity to question or rage at the officials. Hancock left with two fouls five minutes in and wouldn’t return until the second half.
Smith hit a 3 and Montrezl Harrell jammed off a Kentucky turnover and Smith threw a dart underneath to Blackshear and it was 18-5 and the Louisville contingent was going crazy and Calipari, his team rattled by the swarming, desperate, diving-on-the-floor-for-loose ball Louisville gnats, his team 2-11 from the floor, was calling another timeout.
“We knew how this would start — ‘They’re going to pee down their leg,’ is what I said,” Calipari said.
But at the end, it was as if Calipari had summoned the ghost of Dan Issel. Or Jamal Mashburn. Or both.
At the end of the press conference a little after 1 a.m., the NCAA moderator said: “Thank you Rick, we’ll see you tomorrow.’ ”
A disbelieving Calipari, standing as he prepared to exit, looked quizzically around him and asked: “Did you say Rick?”