At the Top, Hurley Guns Down All of Knight’s Best-Laid Plans

Bob Knight was going to show Rick Pitino. No way was Christian Laettner going to beat him the way he beat Pitino’s Kentucky Wildcats. No way was Laettner going to go 10 for 10 from the field, 10 for 10 from the foul line and one for one from 17 feet with 2.1 seconds left and everyone in the building--no, country--knowing the ball was coming his way.

Knight did this by fronting Laettner, backing Laettner and siding Laettner--occasionally from both the right and the left. Hoosiermania engulfed Duke’s most devilish player in Saturday night’s NCAA semifinal and, sure enough, it worked. Laettner went two for eight from the floor and wasn’t heard from again until he grumbled in the postgame interview room:

“There were lots of guys on me. A few ‘chippies’ I missed, but then after that, they wouldn’t let me touch the ball. That’s what happened there.”

And, in the grand scheme of events, the consequence?

“They stayed inside and down on me,” Laettner said, “and that gave us a little more free rein outside.”

Free rein . . . or free rain?

It was pouring inside the Metrodome, with basketballs falling from the heavens and swishing through metal hoops.

Bobby Hurley from 21 feet.

Bobby Hurley from 22 feet.

Bobby Hurley from here, there and virtually everywhere outside the three-point line. The shot that beat Kentucky? Hurley delivered the six shots that stopped Indiana--a six-pack of three-pointers that bailed out Duke when the Blue Devils were sagging right along with the Hoosier defense.

Duke defeated Indiana, 81-78, after trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half. It was a wretched first half by Duke standards, but six three-point field goals have a way of erasing 12-point deficits in a hurry.

“Bobby kept us in it in the first half,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “so that we had a chance in the second. The game was a lot closer at halftime (Indiana led, 42-37) than it should have been. Indiana played a lot better than a five-point lead.”

Krzyzewski informed his team of this fact in front of the blackboard at halftime.

“I told them that Bobby was the only one playing at the level we needed to win a national championship,” Krzyzewski said. “I suggested that everyone in the room should match his level.”

No one did, but as levels go, Hurley’s sufficed. His 26 points equaled his personal best.His six three-pointers tied a Duke record, if not quite the Final Four record. Freddie Banks of Nevada Las Vegas hit 10 three-pointers in the 1987 NCAA semifinals--also against Indiana--but then Banks never played in three consecutive NCAA title games.

Hurley receives that opportunity Monday, against Michigan.

Knight struggled with the notion that his best-laid plans had been undone by the smallest man on the court, a six-foot point guard who had been shooting only 41.7% during the first four games in this tournament.

Doubling and tripling Laettner while letting Hurley cast away? Sounded like a good idea at the time.

“Hurley was really quick with (shooting) the ball,” Knight said. “What we wanted to do was stop the bottom and the top of their offense. We were pretty good at the bottom, but the top got away from us.”

That was Hurley, from the top and over the top.

Sometimes, cerebral reversal bites the hand of its master.

Hurley, who carries himself as just another knock-kneed kid from New Jersey, shrugged it off as part of the job description.

“This is not the usual kind of game I have,” he said. “I’m not always getting 24, 25, 26 points. I just do whatever it takes to win. Tonight, the team needed my shooting.”

He also noticed the pounding Laettner was absorbing under the basket. Sure, Laettner had the shot of the year, the shot of his life last week. The bill came due Saturday night and Laettner paid it, in full, in contusions.

Hurley stayed out of harm’s way and fired away.

Yes, pain was inflicted. But as Hurley reasoned, as he set up time and again just beyond the bright red stripe, it’s truly better to give than to receive.