During the Mike Krzyzewski and and Jim Calhoun eras at Duke and UConn respectively, the schools had some amazing games. The first was in 1990, when Christian Laettner was still somewhat of an unknown. People knew he started for Duke obviously, but the level of greatness he achieved? The fear he inspired in opponents and their fans?
That would come later.
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This game was the first hint of what he would do to college basketball.
Duke was down 78-77 in overtime with 2.6 left to play. Coach K drew up a play but when he saw UConn’s defense, he called out “Special!”
In that play, Laettner brought the ball in and then got it back. In this case, he tossed it in to Brian Davis, who gave it back to him for the first buzzer beater of his astounding career.
UConn would get its own though, upsetting Duke in the 1999 championship game and then knocking the Blue Devils out in the 2004 Final Four.
Nothing takes away from what Laettner did at Duke though, and in some ways, the most impressive thing was that he just engendered fear in so many people. Like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, his teams always seemed to win, and they feared and hated him for that inevitability.
