The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball

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Penguin, Jan 5, 2012 - Sports & Recreation - 320 pages
The definitive book on the greatest game in the history of college basketball, and the dramatic road both teams took to get there.

March 28, 1992. The final of the NCAA East Regional, Duke vs. Kentucky. The 17,848 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and the millions watching on TV could say they saw the greatest game and the greatest shot in the history of college basketball. But it wasn't just the final play of the game-an 80-foot inbounds bass from Grant Hill to Christian Laettner with 2.1 seconds left in overtime- that made Duke's 104-103 victory so memorable. The Kentucky and Duke players and coaches arrived at that point from very different places, each with a unique story to tell.

In The Last Great Game, acclaimed ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski tells their stories in vivid detail, turning the game we think we remember into a drama filled with suspense, humor, revelations and reverberations. The cast alone is worth meeting again: Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Bobby Hurley, Jamal Mashburn, Christian Laettner, Sean Woods, Grant Hill, and Bobby Knight. Timed for the game's 20th anniversary, The Last Great Game isn't a book just for Duke or Kentucky or even basketball fans. It's a book for any reader who can appreciate that great moments in sports are the result of hard work, careful preparation, group psychology, and a little luck.

 

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Fourteen

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About the author (2012)

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior national columnist for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. Prior to joining ESPN in 1992, he worked as a sports reporter for publications including the Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, and the L.A. Times. He has received four Associated Press Sports Editors National Writing Awards, among other honors, for his work. He has also authored and co-authored various sports books, including The Bus, a bestselling biography of Jerome Bettis. A former Duke hater, Wojciechowski has made peace with the Blue Devils. He lives in Wheaton, Illinois.

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