You're probably right, and I'm remembering the feeling that those shots gave me better than I'm remembering the back and forth thereafter. Those shots came with a lot of time remaining, so they definitely didn't seal the deal. But they were huge, and made me think "Holy crap, we're going to win this!" It was like the feeling with Hurley's trey (Duke down 5, about 3 minutes to go) against UNLV in 1991 - which changed my frame of mind from "uh oh, I don't know if we can pull this out" to "oh my God, we might actually win this thing!" Those are the college basketball moments that, as a fan, you live for.
battier is overrated
well i know alot of duke fans (i live in Raleigh) and one of them is my best friend. we always get into arguments about duke and carolina and he always says that duke has had so many great players. he compared battier with michael jordan and i have heard alot of duke fans say that he is better then any carolina player ever
As opposed to Dunleavy's impressive three 3s in a row, the thing that really won it for us was Battier. It was like he had a hand in every play those last three or four minutes. There were times when he willed the team to greatness that season, and in the tournament, but in the Championship, it's like he was everywhere at the end of the game. One of the great NCAA Championship game performances IMHO. Even if Jason Gardner stands up and J-dub gets that untimely foul, I still think we would have won that game, simply because we had the man that would not be denied.
well you have to agree Carolina has had alot more better players then duke
Do I have to?
Seriously, do you think you are going to come to a Duke website and have people agree with you on that? What's the point? It could be argued either way, that either program has had better players, but there's no way you are going to come on a Duke fan site and have people agree with you that UNC "has had alot better players" than Duke.
This thread was about the 2001 Championship game between Duke and Arizona. In order to try to relate the original thread to your post, I'll just note that all 5 starters on Duke's 2000-01 team were/are NBA players. You can't say that about Carolina's last Championship team.
All Packer did was point out that the neutral fans in the building had turned against Duke because they perceived Duke was getting all the calls. He never said they were right; in fact, after he commented on the fans' perception and reaction and Nantz asked him if he thought they were right, he said, "No, I don't necessarily think that." His comment that there were fouls on both ends of the floor was an expansion on the previous comment. Also, Packer never argued that Jason had fouled on the body-surfing play late in the first half, never argued that Baxter's fifth foul in the Maryland game was a bad call, and said he thought Battier's block that sent Gardner sprawling and led to Dunleavy's third three was a good no-call. I don't get why you blame Packer for Duke hatred.
The Tar Heelfanforlife guy is an obvious troll, but his Battier vs. Jordan comments are interesting in one aspect - they bring up in my mind the question of who had the better college career - Battier or Jordan. They both won a national championship, though Jordan did it as a role player (a really really good role player) on an awesome team his freshman year, while Battier did it as the unquestioned leader of an awesome team his senior year. Battier improved dramatically during his career, as did Jordan, but Battier's development was probably more breathtaking.
I don't know...Jordan went on to become such a dominant player in the NBA (yes, even as a Tar Heel he's the best NBA player ever imho) that it sometimes clouds one's ability to objectively judge his college career. All in all I'd say that his college career was a very good one, but one of unrealized potential (that was, of course, later realized in the pros). No one could say Battier's college career left any potential unrealized.
The Duke player whose college career most resembles Jordan's is Jason Williams. IIRC, they not only had similar numbers, but their final seasons were similar in remarkable ways (e.g., their #1 ranked and considered the prohibitive favorite teams both lost to Indiana in the Sweet 16).
As collegians, Jordan's and Battier's games were so different it's comparing apples and oranges, IMO.
In terms of winning titles at every level, there has been no greater basketball player than Bill Russell.