Latest news with #Laettner
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
"Shaq's even said it before, Christian busted his a**" - Grant Hill says Christian Laettner was the greatest college player he's ever seen
In the summer of 1992, Team USA assembled the Dream Team, a squad of NBA giants bound for Barcelona. But one name stood out — he was the only amateur, Christian Laettner, the national player of the year, was the lone college player handpicked for the original Dream Team. He rubbed shoulders with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. That alone says everything about what kind of player he was in college — transcendent. No one was better as a college athlete. Laettner's legacy built in Durham Laettner's pro career might not have soared to the heights expected of a third-overall pick. 13 seasons, one All-Star appearance, and multiple jersey swaps didn't quite match the mythology of his college days. But according to former college teammate, Grant Hill, that's missing the point. Advertisement "We look at his pro career and it didn't quite pan out with the expectations," Hill said of Laettner. "But he was just as good of a college basketball player that I've ever seen. I'm talking starting from 1982, I didn't see before that … from the modern era, in terms of accomplishments, in terms of just like stepping up to the challenge. Shaq's even said it before — Christian busted his a**." Laettner played for Duke from 1988 to 1992, during the height of coach Mike Krzyzewski's rise. By his sophomore year, he had helped take the Blue Devils to the NCAA championship game. He had already been to the Final Four as a freshman. And then came the back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992 — the school's first-ever titles. He played in 23 out of possible 24 NCAA tournament games, winning 21 of them — both NCAA records. During that run, he scored 407 points in tournament games alone, placing him among the top scorers in March Madness history. Those were legendary numbers by collegiate standards. He averaged 16.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his career and hit nearly 50 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. In his senior season, he posted 21.5 points per game and swept every major national player of the year award. Advertisement Duke retired his No. 32 jersey the same year. And when the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame opened its doors, Laettner's name was put in early. A college legend Laettner had a handful of moments that enshrined him in college basketball history, and nearly all of them came in during pressure-packed NCAA tournament games. The 1990 East Regional Final against UConn was one. Duke trailed by one in overtime with two seconds left. Laettner made the shot. In the 1992 East Regional Final against Kentucky, with Duke trailing again in overtime with just 2.1 seconds on the clock, Hill hurled a full-court pass. Laettner caught it, faked right, spun left and nailed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer. Advertisement It's often ranked the greatest college basketball game ever played. Laettner finished with a perfect stat line: 10-for-10 from the field, 10-for-10 from the line, and 31 points. This sent Duke to the Final Four again, where they would defeat Michigan and claim their second straight championship. "Christian was competitive," Hill said. "Christian brought it and he had some good players around him too that helped and he got it done. And we rode him those years." He was NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1991, a place on the All-Tournament team in each of his four seasons, and the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award, and the AP Player of the Year all in 1992. He might not have the NBA resume of his Dream Team teammates, but in college, he was the final boss—the one every rival coach feared—the one who always got the ball when it mattered most. Related: "My emotional state was, 'Geez, I know this is Michael Jordan'" - Christian Laettner fondly remembers beating MJ in ping pong during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona
Chicago Tribune
18-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Is it OK to still hate Duke? 3 pressing questions about this year's NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament is here, and that can mean only one thing. TV timeouts. So let's take a quick one while we check the video monitor and answer three pressing questions about this year's month of Madness. 1. Is it OK to still hate Duke? It's never not OK to hate Duke, though it's hard to dislike freshman star Cooper Flagg, the top player in the nation and consensus No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft. Duke earned its reputation as an unlikable program during the Christian Laettner era, when coach Mike Krzyzewski was in his heyday. T-shirts reading, 'I Still Hate Christian Laettner,' were spotted in the stands at the ACC Tournament last weekend. Laettner welcomed the hate. 'No one thinks more highly of me than probably myself,' Laettner told the Tribune's Skip Myslenski during the 1992 Final Four. 'I think that's fine.' His Duke teammate Bobby Hurley was asked during that '92 tournament whether he ever wanted to reach up and grab Laettner by the throat. 'At times,' Hurley replied. 'But I couldn't reach that high.' Both have moved on, but the reputation remains. A made-for-March Madness title game would pit Duke against No. 2 seed St. John's, coached by Rick Pitino, who as Kentucky's coach in '92 famously neglected to have a player guard the inbound pass to Laettner that led to the iconic buzzer-beater in the East Region final. Either way, you'll be treated to that shining moment a few dozen times if Duke makes a run. We're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, but this is Duke's best shot at winning a national title since Jon Scheyer took over from Coach K in 2022-23. The Blue Devils enter as a No. 1 seed after winning the ACC Tournament without Flagg, who sprained his right ankle in a quarterfinal. There are no real villains on this Duke team like Laettner or the always-annoying Grayson Allen, who perfected the role and even carried it over to the NBA. With Flagg back, the Blue Devils should cruise to the Sweet 16, where a possible matchup against No. 4 seed Arizona awaits. Scheyer, a former Mr. Basketball of Illinois at Glenbrook North who once scored 21 points in 75 seconds against Proviso West, has had the weight of the world on his shoulders since replacing Krzyzewski. Scheyer never has backed down from a fight, and this month figures to be a series of street brawls — with Duke back as the villain you never knew you needed. 2. Why are there so many SEC teams? The SEC set an NCAA Tournament record with 14 selections from the 16-team conference better known for football and Finebaum. Either it's the best conference in history or conference realignment has watered down the sport. Any of five SEC teams has a realistic chance to win it all: top-seeded Auburn and Florida, No. 2 seeds Alabama and Tennessee and third-seeded Kentucky, which had 11 Quad 1 wins, fifth in the country. Even No. 6 seed Missouri is … uh, never mind. SEC teams won 89% of their nonconference games, so there's a reason for the hype. But even teams that struggled in conference play were rewarded, including Porter Moser's Oklahoma Sooners, who went 6-12 in SEC games. Texas made it in with a First Four berth despite also going 6-12 in the conference and 19-15 overall. Matthew McConaughey was not on the selection committee, yet the Longhorns made it anyway, so look for him loitering near the bench when Texas takes on Xavier on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, for a shot at upsetting sixth-seeded Illinois. The Big Ten, by the way, sent eight teams, and they all finished above .500 in conference play. Not that anyone in the conference is complaining. 3. How do I win my office pool? Having never won the Tribune office pool in 43 years, despite running it for 15 years in the 1980s and '90s, I can't dispense any real advice. My heart says Michigan State. My head says Florida. But my alma mater is Missouri, which has mastered the art of heartbreaking losses for so long, I always pick the Tigers to lose in the first round (to No. 11 seed Drake this year). That's why my old college roommates banned me from participating in any group texts during Mizzou games in March. The trendy practice to fill out brackets this year is to ask AI, which saves time and theoretically equalizes the field if everyone in your pool uses the same AI chatbot. The Sporting News used Perplexity AI, which picked Michigan State, Florida, Alabama and Houston in the Final Four, with Alabama beating Tom Izzo's Spartans for the title. used ChatGPT, which has all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four and Duke beating Auburn. Boring? The Athletic made projections based on 200,000 simulations of the 68-team bracket. Going by percentages, the four top seeds all advance to the Final Four, with Duke over Florida for the title. Duke has a 23% chance to win it all, while Illinois has less than 1%, according to the current projections. But those smug computers obviously haven't seen a shirtless Illini coach Brad Underwood and his Super Soaker squirt gun. You can't quantify coach-player bonding in March. Unless you're filling out brackets for more than bragging rights or a sawbuck or two, it's best to fill out your own sheet while doing as little research as possible, then just live or die by the picks. Everyone knows by now the No. 12 seeds are usually the best first-round upset possibilities, along with whoever is playing Purdue, which has lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, North Texas and Little Rock in first-round games since 2016. The fourth-seeded Boilermakers play No. 13 seed High Point, in case you're looking for omens. High Point University, located in High Point, N.C., was named 'the #1 Best-Run College in the nation' by the Princeton Review, according to the school's website. The Panthers are so overlooked, they make Cinderella look like a Kardashian, but it's hard to pick against the Big South champs. Since the tournament expanded in 1985, No. 12 seeds have won 55 times, a decent 35% average. No. 13 seeds have won only 33 times, including Yale over Auburn last year and North Texas over Purdue in 2021. Yale, a 13 seed again, faces No. 4 Texas A&M with a chance to strike another blow for the Ivy League — the conference of upsets since Princeton's Pete Carril perfected the backdoor cut. As for the rest of your picks, go with your heart. Or your head. Or your alma mater or your favorite mascot or whatever. After all, it's just sports.
Chicago Tribune
18-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Column: ‘Is it OK to still hate Duke? 3 pressing questions about this year's NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament is here, and that can mean only one thing. TV timeouts. So let's take a quick one while we check the video monitor and answer three pressing questions about this year's month of Madness. 1. Is it OK to still hate Duke? It's never not OK to hate Duke, though it's hard to dislike freshman star Cooper Flagg, the top player in the nation and consensus No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft. Duke earned its reputation as an unlikable program during the Christian Laettner era, when coach Mike Krzyzewski was in his heyday. T-shirts reading, 'I Still Hate Christian Laettner,' were spotted in the stands at the ACC Tournament last weekend. Laettner welcomed the hate. 'No one thinks more highly of me than probably myself,' Laettner told the Tribune's Skip Myslenski during the 1992 Final Four. 'I think that's fine.' His Duke teammate Bobby Hurley was asked during that '92 tournament whether he ever wanted to reach up and grab Laettner by the throat. 'At times,' Hurley replied. 'But I couldn't reach that high.' Both have moved on, but the reputation remains. A made-for-March Madness title game would pit Duke against No. 2 seed St. John's, coached by Rick Pitino, who as Kentucky's coach in '92 famously neglected to have a player guard the inbound pass to Laettner that led to the iconic buzzer-beater in the East Region final. Either way, you'll be treated to that shining moment a few dozen times if Duke makes a run. We're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, but this is Duke's best shot at winning a national title since Jon Scheyer took over from Coach K in 2022-23. The Blue Devils enter as a No. 1 seed after winning the ACC Tournament without Flagg, who sprained his right ankle in a quarterfinal. There are no real villains on this Duke team like Laettner or the always-annoying Grayson Allen, who perfected the role and even carried it over to the NBA. With Flagg back, the Blue Devils should cruise to the Sweet 16, where a possible matchup against No. 4 seed Arizona awaits. Scheyer, a former Mr. Basketball of Illinois at Glenbrook North who once scored 21 points in 75 seconds against Proviso West, has had the weight of the world on his shoulders since replacing Krzyzewski. Scheyer never has backed down from a fight, and this month figures to be a series of street brawls — with Duke back as the villain you never knew you needed. 2. Why are there so many SEC teams? The SEC set an NCAA Tournament record with 14 selections from the 16-team conference better known for football and Finebaum. Either it's the best conference in history or conference realignment has watered down the sport. Any of five SEC teams has a realistic chance to win it all: top-seeded Auburn and Florida, No. 2 seeds Alabama and Tennessee and third-seeded Kentucky, which had 11 Quad 1 wins, fifth in the country. Even No. 6 seed Missouri is … uh, never mind. SEC teams won 89% of their nonconference games, so there's a reason for the hype. But even teams that struggled in conference play were rewarded, including Porter Moser's Oklahoma Sooners, who went 6-12 in SEC games. Texas made it in with a First Four berth despite also going 6-12 in the conference and 19-15 overall. Matthew McConaughey was not on the selection committee, yet the Longhorns made it anyway, so look for him loitering near the bench when Texas takes on Xavier on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, for a shot at upsetting sixth-seeded Illinois. The Big Ten, by the way, sent eight teams, and they all finished above .500 in conference play. Not that anyone in the conference is complaining. 3. How do I win my office pool? Having never won the Tribune office pool in 43 years, despite running it for 15 years in the 1980s and '90s, I can't dispense any real advice. My heart says Michigan State. My head says Florida. But my alma mater is Missouri, which has mastered the art of heartbreaking losses for so long, I always pick the Tigers to lose in the first round (to No. 11 seed Drake this year). That's why my old college roommates banned me from participating in any group texts during Mizzou games in March. The trendy practice to fill out brackets this year is to ask AI, which saves time and theoretically equalizes the field if everyone in your pool uses the same AI chatbot. The Sporting News used Perplexity AI, which picked Michigan State, Florida, Alabama and Houston in the Final Four, with Alabama beating Tom Izzo's Spartans for the title. used ChatGPT, which has all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four and Duke beating Auburn. Boring? The Athletic made projections based on 200,000 simulations of the 68-team bracket. Going by percentages, the four top seeds all advance to the Final Four, with Duke over Florida for the title. Duke has a 23% chance to win it all, while Illinois has less than 1%, according to the current projections. But those smug computers obviously haven't seen a shirtless Illini coach Brad Underwood and his Super Soaker squirt gun. You can't quantify coach-player bonding in March. Unless you're filling out brackets for more than bragging rights or a sawbuck or two, it's best to fill out your own sheet while doing as little research as possible, then just live or die by the picks. Everyone knows by now the No. 12 seeds are usually the best first-round upset possibilities, along with whoever is playing Purdue, which has lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, North Texas and Little Rock in first-round games since 2016. The fourth-seeded Boilermakers play No. 13 seed High Point, in case you're looking for omens. High Point University, located in High Point, N.C., was named 'the #1 Best-Run College in the nation' by the Princeton Review, according to the school's website. The Panthers are so overlooked, they make Cinderella look like a Kardashian, but it's hard to pick against the Big South champs. Since the tournament expanded in 1985, No. 12 seeds have won 55 times, a decent 35% average. No. 13 seeds have won only 33 times, including Yale over Auburn last year and North Texas over Purdue in 2021. Yale, a 13 seed again, faces No. 4 Texas A&M with a chance to strike another blow for the Ivy League — the conference of upsets since Princeton's Pete Carril perfected the backdoor cut. your favorite mascot or whatever. After all, it's just sports.
