It wasn't exactly like 1992, but it was close enough for the crowd to feel acute tingles of reminiscence.
Grant Hill had on street clothes instead of his uniform and Christian Laettner had missed the first attempt. There was no Kentucky Blue on the floor and no one was blinded by the sheen from Rick Pitino's hair.
Hill, unguarded, as he was more than nine years earlier, took the ball under the basket and lobbed it down the floor.
Christian Laettner took it just inside the three-point line. He faked, turned around and buried the jumper to recreate, what is arguably the most dramatic moment in college basketball history. From the bench, Thomas Hill recreated the famous pose with his hands behind his head.
Instead of the Regional Final for Duke, this shot won two tickets to the Duke-Kentucky game this season in The Jimmy V Classic for Brett Hughes, Pratt O03.
"I'm one of those guys who believes Laettner can do anything," Krzyzewski said. "During his four years with me he did. I've been in many a huddle with Laettner where I wasn't the one who was confident, but he always was. Nothing he does surprises me. It made me want to coach him again. I loved coaching Christian."
The former players blended the history with good-natured competition at Friday night's charity All-Star game in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"We've had a lot of fun," Krzyzewski said. "And what the heck, it should be fun. It's going to make a lot of money for our scholarship fund, the Duke-Durham Initiative and for the Burch Avenue Family Center. Seeing the
The players eagerly seized the opportunity to help charities and to reunite with their former teammates.
"It was great," Laettner said. "You'd be a fool to miss something like this, you come back to see everyone, you come back to see Coach K. We're a big family here. It's a great time, and everyone is here."
Grant Hill, who organized the event and gained NBA approval for the game, left extremely pleased with the results.
"Tonight was just awesome," Hill said. "Getting a chance to see the guys come out here and play, and playing golf earlier today, this is what Duke is all about."
The day was not all fun and sun for Hill, who served as an assistant coach for the game and received a technical foul from a chuckling official for his antics on the bench.
"I wish I could have played," he said. "I would have done better as a player than as a coach."
He also had a tough time in the post-game press conference.
After the game, Krzyzewski explained why the Blue Devils decided not to perform the spectacular Bobby Hurley to Grant Hill alley-oop as part of the reenactments.
"The only way we could do that aerodynamically is to have the same haircuts," he said. "And Grant would not agree to that. It was so out of place, that haircut, that they don't even make wigs for it."
Hill could not muster a response.
The game itself was notable for the chance to see the stars
Seeing Hurley at the helm brought the spectators back to the early 1990s.
"When Bobby wound up and started down the court, it reminded me of the hundreds of times he brought the crowd to it's feet here, and how much I loved coaching him," Krzyzewski said.
Hurley noticed some differences.
"It was a slower break," Hurley said. "It wasn't as fast as it was in the early 90s. It was three notches slower, but I had a lot of fun."
Assistant coach Johnny Dawkins provided perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening as he reminded everyone in attendance why he is the leading scorer in program history.
"I hope none of the NBA people were watching too closely, because I don't want to lose a great assistant coach," Krzyzewski joked. "Johnny was probably the most surprising. He is arguably as good a player as has ever played here, and tonight on the court he gave a lot of indication why."
The event had everything from spectacular Corey Maggette dunks to Alaa Abdelnaby's demonstration that he may have a career as a comedian. In the end, the fans left smiling and the players and coaches left pleased both to have played together again and to have helped a worthy cause.
"I want to publicly thank my former players and coaches and all the fans that turned out," Krzyzewski said. "It was a really good event. It was a lot of fun and I thought those guys played pretty hard."
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