Originally Posted by
Jedweb
i think most of us who were Duke fans at the time would have to go with the 1986 title game loss to Louisville and Pervis (Never Nervous) Ellison who as a frosh had the game of his career (college or pro). The Duke team had four starters, all seniors and part of K's breakout recruiting class: Johnny D, Bilas, Alarie, and David Henderson, plus junior Tommy Amaker. We had watched those guys play together and improve together for years as a team, and vault ahead of The Schnozz and the Baby Blue Smurfs as The ACC program. There was a lot of ink about how they were all well behaved and articulate. Henderson was a script writer's dream - a poor kid from NC who got his shot at Duke when the more highly publicized player, Curtis Hunter, opted for the wrong shade of blue down the road. It was not Duke's first trip to the Final Four, but it was K's first. It has seemed to me, in retrospect, that the stars just aligned against Duke in 1986. Not as badly as in 1966 when Bob Verga was sick and Kentucky upset us in the finals, but still - it just wasn't meant to be. Our semi-final game was Kansas, but it should have been Michigan State - a good team, led by Scott Skiles, but not as talented as Kansas. Michigan State had Kansas all but beaten when, in the second half and Kansas trying to catch up, the clock operator in the Midwest Regional gave the trailing Jayhawks a break by not starting the clock for fifteen or twenty seconds well into the second half. And, within the last 25 seconds or so, leading, Michigan State missed the front end of two one-and-ones, and Kansas tied. Kansas won in overtime. They gave Duke a very tough game in the semi finals the following week, while Louisville had a (relative) cruise against LSU. Duke led Louisville in the first half, but to me looked like we were a little gassed by halftime. I recall (Memory - have not watched since) that right at the end of the first half Duke got a breakaway, and Johnny D either missed or was stuffed on a layup. That kind of thing just did not happen to Dawkins. Anyway, we lost, and it was the end of a fairy tale dream with five guys who were an excellent team and played, learned and grew together. The fact that Bilas and Alarie at 6 - 8 were the tallest starters led a lot of the national press to underestimate how good a team we had.
One or two folks have mentioned the 1988 Regional loss to Kentucky. 17 point lead gone in nine and a half minutes at the end of the game. That one was tough, but we ran into a lot of Kentucky fans at the restaurant after the game. They were complimentary and gracious. An anomaly? I don't know. What does stick in my mind is a young guy, probably college student, lying on the concrete outside of the arena in St. Petersburg, face up with a beer in one hand, and many more in his gut, screaming, "Now i know there's a God!" This was six years after The Laettner Shot.