The Last Great Game
Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball
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4.3 • 135 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The definitive book on the greatest game in the history of college basketball, and the dramatic road both teams took to get there.
March 28, 1992. The final of the NCAA East Regional, Duke vs. Kentucky. The 17,848 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and the millions watching on TV could say they saw the greatest game and the greatest shot in the history of college basketball. But it wasn't just the final play of the game-an 80-foot inbounds bass from Grant Hill to Christian Laettner with 2.1 seconds left in overtime- that made Duke's 104-103 victory so memorable. The Kentucky and Duke players and coaches arrived at that point from very different places, each with a unique story to tell.
In The Last Great Game, acclaimed ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski tells their stories in vivid detail, turning the game we think we remember into a drama filled with suspense, humor, revelations and reverberations. The cast alone is worth meeting again: Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Bobby Hurley, Jamal Mashburn, Christian Laettner, Sean Woods, Grant Hill, and Bobby Knight. Timed for the game's 20th anniversary, The Last Great Game isn't a book just for Duke or Kentucky or even basketball fans. It's a book for any reader who can appreciate that great moments in sports are the result of hard work, careful preparation, group psychology, and a little luck.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 1992 NCAA East Regional final between Duke University and the University of Kentucky is considered one of the best basketball games of all time, one that ended with the improbable. With just over two seconds left in overtime, Grant Hill threw a perfect 80-foot inbounds pass to Christian Laettner, who made the game-winning basket over two defenders as time expired. As compelling as this historic game was, so were the backgrounds of the teams involved. Kentucky was thought to be years away from a Final Four berth, but head coach Rick Pitino and his punishing game plan resurrected a scandal-plagued program. Duke, coming off a national championship, was a perennial powerhouse whose driven players were convinced another title was theirs. Wojciechowski, a senior reporter for ESPN.com, traces the two teams' path to each other and the game's impact on its participants, but little space is devoted to the hypothesis promised in the title. We never learn how this legendary tilt influenced college basketball or why it's the defining game in an intensely popular sport. Though fans of both colleges will lap up the locker room tales and glory day remembrances, Wojciechowski's effort reads too much like a prodigiously reported magazine article. 16-page color insert.
Customer Reviews
One Speed
Great read! I enjoyed reading about the journey to get to "the game". The background information on the Kentucky players who stuck with Pitino and the relationship between Hurley and his teammates was interesting.
Painfully great!
Painful because I'm a Kentucky fan. I haven't wanted to watch a replay from that game ever since The Shot went through my heart like an arrow 20 years ago. Reading this book was the medicine I needed to get over it and remember why I loved that team so much. Oh for the good old days when kids played all four years of college ball!
So well written!!
I highly recommend that you read this if you're a Kentucky fan.
If you're a Duke fan, than go to H***! ;)
Bitter Sweet
Just a tremendous read. I remember watching that game as if it were yesterday. I was and always will be a huge UK fan and on that fateful night I was watching the game with my future wife. I was a wreck the entire time and would need to attend confession for a month to make up for all of the four letter words I used on that night:). Finally when Woods hit the shot my future wife said "there are you finally happy the game is over". I snapped back at her "It's never over". Sure enough it wasn't...I spent the next 3 hours swearing, questioning God & of course sobbing uncontrollably. I hated Duke & hated Laettner more, could have accepted losing that way just not to him or them!!! Flash forward twenty plus years & now my 9 year old son is a Duke fanatic & still reminds me of "the shot" any chance he can. I said I would never root for Duke...ever...but find myself now rooting for them against everybody accept of course The Big Blue Nation...isn't it funny how you change because of your kids:). Awesome book & thanks for reopening the wounds of that fateful night!