ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Everything was in place.
The men's basketball team trailed Kentucky, 86-84, with 4.5 seconds remaining. Duke needed to go the length of the court, and its 6-foot-8 forward, in this case Shane Battier, was prepared to throw a baseball pass.
It was almost identical to the 1992 East regional final, give or take a point and 2.4 seconds.
This time, however, Duke didn't find a magical ending.
Unlike in 1992, when Christian Laettner caught 6-8 forward Grant Hill's baseball pass and beat Kentucky 104-103 with a jumper at the buzzer, the top-seeded Blue Devils came up two points short against the No. 2-seeded Wildcats in Sunday night's South regional final at Tropicana Field.
Battier couldn't find anyone on the baseball pass and had to dish the ball off to point guard William Avery, who hurried upcourt but could only make it within 30 feet of the basket. Avery's last-second heave bounced off the backboard and off the mark, ending Duke's last hope and sending Kentucky to the Final Four for the third straight season.
"It seemed like that ball took forever to hit the rim or hit the back glass," Kentucky forward Heshimu Evans said. "It felt like the ball was spinning in slow motion. He got a good look at the basket-real good, that's what was scary about it-but he missed the shot, and we celebrated from there."
There was no celebration for the Blue Devils (32-4), despite a storybook season that looked most of Sunday evening like it would continue into next week in San Antonio. Duke led by as many as 18 in the first half, and although the Wildcats fought back to within eight early in the second half, the Blue Devils used runs of 8-2 and 10-3 to stretch their advantage to 17 with nine and a half minutes left.
Because Duke came so close, going down stung more than usual.
"This is a loss that hurts, whether it was to go to the Final Four or not," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "What we as a staff have to do is make sure that our kids feel the pride, the joy, the fulfillment of having had a great year. Because we've had a terrific year."
Although the Blue Devils appeared ready to wrap up the game, ahead 71-54, the Wildcats caught fire. Kentucky entered the game a 36-percent three-point shooting team for the season and had matched that exact percentage, shooting 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) from beyond the arc through the game's first 30 minutes. But down by 17, the Wildcats took on a new look.
First, Evans stepped to the left wing and sank a three-pointer over Chris Carrawell. After a Duke miss, the Wildcats pushed the ball upcourt and kicked it out to Scott Padgett, who hit another three from the left side.
Carrawell missed a jumper on Duke's next trip downcourt, and Kentucky point guard Wayne Turner, setting the tone for the rest of the game, drove by Duke's Steve Wojciechowski, drew a foul and made a 12-foot runner. Turner connected on the ensuing free throw, giving the Wildcats a 9-0 run in less than 1:15 and slicing the Blue Devil edge to a manageable 71-63.
"They started hitting shots, and they started boarding a little bit better," said Duke junior Trajan Langdon, who scored 18 points but shot just 2-of-7 from the field in the second half. "We held them to one shot throughout most of the game. The last eight, nine minutes, the majority of the threes they shot, they hit,
"They felt a sense of urgency; if they didn't get it done, they were going to lose."
The Wildcats maintained that sense of urgency after an official timeout at the 7:47 mark, though the rebounding to which Langdon referred didn't become a factor until the game's final five minutes.
Wojciechowski drew a foul from Jeff Sheppard on Duke's next possession but missed his second free throw, and Turner took it to the Blue Devils on the opposite end. He penetrated again, drew the defense and flipped the ball back to Allen Edwards, whose three-pointer made the score 72-66.
Edwards' three was Kentucky's third in a span of just over two minutes. Overall, the Wildcats made 7 of their final 8 three-point attempts, including 5 of 6 after they had fallen behind by 17.
Although the Wildcats had a hot hand, the Blue Devils put the onus on themselves for not stopping the flood.
"Basically, all we needed to do was dig down and get a couple of stops," Battier said. "Every team is going to make a run; that's basketball. What we needed to do was really dig down, stop them and get a couple of big defensive rebounds, instead of letting them get offensive rebounds and putbacks."
The Wildcats kept coming, however. With the Duke lead down to six, Wojciechowski missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving UK a chance to pull within four. The Wildcats did that and more.
Duke forward Roshown McLeod was whistled for throwing an elbow while fighting through a pick, an intentional foul that gave Sheppard two free throws and Kentucky the ball. Sheppard cut the deficit to 72-68 at the free-throw line; Turner drove again and sank a mid-range jumper to make it a two-point game.
In less than three minutes, the Wildcats had turned a 17-point Duke lead into a one-possession game.
"To come back from that big of a deficit against a team like Duke takes an incredible team effort-not just one or two players, but everyone on the team," said Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who watched five of his players score during the incredible five-possession, 16-point run.
"I can't say enough about that."
For the next 2 1/2 minutes, the teams traded punches-Turner driving for a jumper, McLeod dunking home a missed shot for Duke.
The momentum start to swing Kentucky's way after a McLeod free throw put the Blue Devils ahead 77-73 with 4:21 remaining.
Smith had removed center Nazr Mohammed, his leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, just under the seven-minute mark, going with a smaller lineup of Padgett, Evans, Sheppard, Edwards and Turner. Although the Wildcats had no true center, the move improved their quickness-both on defense and under the boards.
"We knew they could go small," Krzyzewski said. "It gave them even more speed."
That speed showed up not only in Turner's drives, but also in the Wildcats' board work in the closing minutes. At the 4:04 mark, Evans, just 6-6 but athletic, slipped under the Duke defense and tipped in a miss to bring Kentucky within 77-75.
Langdon countered with a jumper for Duke, but the Wildcats wouldn't go away. With slightly less than three minutes left, Turner drove for yet another pull-up jumper and the Wildcats were back within two.
Turner tried again to beat the Blue Devils, forcing
He tapped back the rebound to teammate Cameron Mills, a sharpshooter who knocked down a three-pointer that gave Kentucky its first lead of the game, 80-79, with 2:15 left to play.
In tapping back the rebound, Evans had given Duke a taste of its own medicine.
"I couldn't grab it, so I just wanted to hit it out there, figuring that we could start something, get something going," Evans said. "Cameron had a good look at the basket and hit a great shot.
"It was funny because... Duke was great at [the tap-back]. I remember watching it on a scouting report. I couldn't get two hands on it, so I just said, 'Let me just try to hit it. If I don't grab it, one of these Duke players is going to get it.'"
McLeod restored Duke's lead on a pair of free throws with 1:50 remaining, but again, the Wildcats used offensive rebounding to grab an edge. After Turner missed a baseline jumper, Evans grabbed the rebound.
His shot was blocked by Elton Brand, but Padgett came up with the loose ball, was fouled by Wojciechowski and made one of two free throws to tie the score at 81.
Avery had a chance to put the Blue Devils back ahead but missed a runner in the lane with one minute left. On the other end, Kentucky went to its bread-and-butter-dribble penetration-for the game-winner.
This time, it was Sheppard, not Turner, who drove into the lane.
With a tricky move, the UK shooting guard found Scott Padgett open for a three-pointer on the left wing.
"They ran a high pick-and-roll with Padgett and Sheppard," Battier said. "Elton [Brand, who was guarding Padgett] stepped in to guard Sheppard, but Sheppard kept going, so Elton had to stay with Sheppard. That left Padgett wide open.
"Sheppard just made a good play. Elton recovered, but it was a second too late."
Padgett's three broke the tie, putting Duke in an almost do-or-die situation. Langdon dribbled along the perimeter, drawing a pair of defenders, and shoveled the ball back to McLeod while shielding the 6-8 forward from his man.
McLeod missed his three-point attempt, though, and Duke's hopes appeared dashed. Turner made one of two free throws, making it a two-possession game at 85-81, but McLeod kept the Blue Devils alive with a three-pointer from the right wing. Brand immediately fouled Edwards after the inbounds pass, but Edwards made only his second free-throw attempt, putting the Wildcats ahead by two and setting up the Blue Devils' last chance.
Interestingly, when Krzyzewski sent his team out for the final 4.5 seconds, he kept Wojciechowski, the Blue Devils' sparkplug senior leader, with him on the bench.
"[Wojciechowski] wouldn't have been able to get the ball upcourt as fast as [Avery]," Krzyzewski said. "If we get a shot, I'd rather have [Langdon or McLeod] try to get that shot.
"You need a screener, a thrower, two shooters and a ballhandler, and that's what we had out there. We had the best people in the game that might have saved us."
Those people couldn't save the Blue Devils, and a season that produced the third No. 1 seed in Duke history came to an end.
"I love my team; I love them more after today," Krzyzewski said.
"I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to coach them. I'm a
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