Duke vs. Kentucky, 1992 East Regional final, on ESPN Classic now

[Johnny Dangerously]

FYI. About to tip off.

 

[Rockbottom]

That mother****ing Christian Laettner cost me MAJOR coin.

Or would it be "father****ing"? At any rate ... GUARD THE INBOUNDS PASS, PITINO!

rb

 

[D-Backs Hack]

Watched that game on a 12-inch B&W TV at the college rag.

When I saw the ball get to Laettner cleanly, I said to the guy with me, "Death."

No doubt in my mind he was going to make that shot. None.

 

[zeke12]

Shot perfect for that game, didn't he?

10-10 from the field, 10-10 from the line for an even 30?

 

[BYH]

Best game I've ever seen.

You've never heard an 18-year-old kid curse as loud or as much as I did when Laettner hit that shot. Even my father told me to keep it down.

 

[Big Buckin' agate_monkey]

It was on a couple days ago too. Got there just in time for CL's shot.

That was about a year before I really started following sports as a youngin, so it was kinda cool watching the "broadcast."

 

[HejiraHenry]

How do you not front the big guy on the inbounds? Jeez.

 

[Bullrog]

In more important Classic broadcasting news,

Saturday, 1 p.m.

AMERICAN GLADIATORS MARATHON!!!

 

[imjustagirl2]

Better if they showed the game but used Cawood Ledford's audio.

RIP, Cawood.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

In more important Classic broadcasting news,

Saturday, 1 p.m.

AMERICAN GLADIATORS MARATHON!!!

And all sports guys in my shop call in sick on Saturday.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Who's the big guy on Kentucky's bench who looks like a young Cal Thomas playing a 1980s porn star playing a college basketball scrub?

 

[imjustagirl2]

You mean Gimel Martinez?

He and his sister moved in across the street from me when I was in HS. His sister was WAY hotter than he was.

 

[slappy4428]

I can not watch this... I will not watch Brian Davis prance into Christian's arms ever again

 

[KYSportsWriter]

He and his sister moved in across the street from me when I was in HS. His sister was WAY hotter than he was.

 

[Boobie Miles]

Always forgotten from this game was that shot Woods made to give Kentucky the lead. My God was that an ugly, tough, clutch shot.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

I've never forgotten it.

And yes, it was ugly, tough and clutch.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Better if they showed the game but used Cawood Ledford's audio.

RIP, Cawood.

Wasn't it his final game as UK's announcer?

 

[Armchair_QB]

Better if they showed the game but used Cawood Ledford's audio.

RIP, Cawood.

Wasn't it his final game as UK's announcer?

Yes.

 

[Grohl]

Mentioning Ledford gives me an excuse to post the ending to Alexander Wolff's story about the game (several months later) in Sports Illustrated, which is one of my favorite stories ever:

---​

Young athletes are normally ingenuous in outlook and laconic in speech. They tend to prefer the security of cliche and to decline invitations to reflect. But singular circumstances can sometimes fit them with the perspective of those much older. Thirty years from now people will still be walking into the insurance agency Richie Farmer intends to open in Manchester, Ky., and asking him to tell them about that game the Unforgettables played against Duke back in '92. And Farmer will launch into the tale he already has down pat. "You know," he says today, and most surely will say tomorrow, "they say Cawood Ledford is the best recruiter Kentucky's ever had. Listening to Cawood call a loss, you can imagine a tear running down a little boy's cheek, and his mama going over to tell him it'll be all right, and the next day him going out and shooting baskets, because someday he's going to be a Wildcat and it's going to be different. That next time Kentucky's going to win."

Nine days after Duke's win in Philadelphia, Cawood Ledford was in Minneapolis to broadcast, as he customarily did, the Monday-night title game for NCAA Productions. Ledford was packing up his gear following Duke's victory over Michigan when a well-wisher came by to inquire how his final broadcast had gone.

Ledford barely looked up as he answered. "I did my last game a week ago."

 

[imjustagirl2]

Excellent. I'm just lucky I moved to Kentucky three months before that game, so I got to experience Cawood at least a couple times.