Big Blue revelation: Not everyone from Duke is a devil
John Pelphrey said that Kentucky playing Duke on Tuesday brings back “a flood of memories.” Of course, no memory is more vivid than Christian Laettner making the shot at the buzzer that ended his college career.
Actually, not only did Duke end his career with a crushing defeat, the Blue Devils also beat UK in Pelphrey’s college debut: an 80-55 blowout in the 1988 Tip-Off Classic.
Another player, Deron Feldhaus, also had his UK career book-ended by defeats to Duke.
“Certainly there’s no love lost,” Pelphrey said Friday.
But, this story does not dissolve into lifelong bitterness.
“One of the things I found over the years is there’s a lot of people with Duke that I like,” Pelphrey said. He listed Antonio Lang, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Mike Krzyzewski and Steve Wojciechowski.
As a rookie head coach at South Alabama, Pelphrey got to know Lang, who was a native of Mobile. Their sons, T.J. Lang and Jackson Pelphrey, played on the same youth baseball team for several seasons.
“It was kind of a cool thing,” Pelphrey said. “We were just two dads trying to support our sons in the best way we could.”
Lang, who was playing overseas, would work out in the summer at South Alabama’s facility. “He would come by my office every single day,” Pelphrey said, “and we’d talk. ‘We got a game tonight.’ ‘Can these guys get themselves in the championship game.’
“It was like he didn’t go to Duke, and I didn’t go to Kentucky.”
When Pelphrey coached at Arkansas, he found himself sitting next to Krzyzewski at several AAU recruiting events and enjoying the company of the Duke coach.
“It kind of surprised me a little bit,” Pelphrey said. “We don’t like these guys at all, Kentucky against Duke. There’s no love lost either way. But outside of the competition, and having a chance to get to know those guys, it’s a different perspective probably than what anybody would have ever thought.”
Saving time
John Pelphrey and Deron Feldhaus were the UK players defending — or not defending, if you prefer — Christian Laettner.
“It still stings a little bit,” Feldhaus said. “I’m older. I’m getting ready to turn 50. It’s been a long time. I definitely don’t root for Duke, that’s for sure.”
Laettner’s shot in the 1992 NCAA Tournament comes up in conversation or is fodder for teasing by friends, Feldhaus said.
When he meets someone and he says he played for UK and graduated in 1992, the other person will usually ask how the team did.
“I’ll always say, ‘Well, I was guarding Laettner,’ and they know what I’m talking about,” Feldhaus said. “I just go ahead and put it out there because I know it’s going to eventually get there. So why prolong it?”
Unforgettables
John Pelphrey will not be watching Kentucky play Duke. He has a good reason why not.
An assistant coach for Alabama, Pelphrey will be working at the Tide’s opening game that night against Southern University. Southern is the alma mater of Alabama Coach Avery Johnson.
Southern’s first-year coach is Sean Woods, one of Pelphrey’s fellow “Unforgettables” at UK.
“I’m looking forward to doing some research on that guy,” Pelphrey quipped.
Memory lapse
Like many basketball fans, Cameron Mills can recall his reaction to the final seconds of the 1992 UK-Duke game. He said he was a high school sophomore at home alone watching the game.
When Sean Woods made the shot to put UK ahead by one point with 2.1 seconds left, Mills called a friend. “I screamed ‘We’re going to do it! We’re going to do it! We’re going to do it!” he remembered.
Mills said he’d call back after the final 2.1 seconds played out. Of course, in that time, Grant Hill made the long inbounds pass to Christian Laettner, who made the winning shot.
“I literally just slumped to the floor on my knees, and was just speechless,” Mills said “I remember it so vividly.”
Of course, Mills and UK exacted revenge by beating Duke in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. In a bit of role reversal, Mills hit a big shot that UK fans claimed to vividly remember.
Fans have approached him and told him how unforgettable his shot was. “‘I’ll never forget where I was when you hit that 35-footer with one second left to beat Duke and win the national championship,’” Mills said.
Actually, Mills made a three-pointer from the top of the key with about two and a half minutes left to help UK rally to a victory over Duke in the 1998 Elite Eight.
“It’s funny how our minds work,” Mills said.
Memorable matchups
UK-Duke games usually give people plenty to remember. Or forget, if you prefer.
In December 2001 at East Rutherford, N.J., Duke won 95-90 in overtime. Jay Williams made seven of 10 three-point shots and scored 38 points for Duke.
“I don’t care what anybody says, there’s no way you can run away from Duke and Kentucky playing,” he said. “When our schedule came out, I saw that date. It was in New Jersey. It was at the Meadowlands. It’s where I was from (Plainfield, N.J.). It was Kentucky, a team that had recruited me, and that you heard about all the time.”
In the 2012 Champions Classic, Duke beat Kentucky 75-68. A striking memory is of Alex Poythress flying high above other players for one-handed put-back dunks.
In the 2015 Champions Classic, Kentucky beat Duke 74-63. A little Tyler Ulis went a long way. He scored 18 points, had six assists and no turnovers in 40 minutes of play.
Good night
Former Duke guard Jay Williams is a new father. His daughter, Emilia, is three weeks old.
“She’s a sweetheart,” he said.
Williams will be part of ESPN’s coverage of the Champions Classic, which features Michigan State playing Kansas as well as Kentucky against Duke.
His wife asked him if he was excited to be part of such an event.
“I’m, like, am I excited just to watch basketball and talk about basketball and actually sleep six hours (a night) for two days?” he said he replied. “I’m kind of excited about that, you know.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that to her. But I couldn’t help myself, and told the truth.”
More numbers
Whether or not you’re a fan of analytics, there’s no denying the growing presence of numbers.
The new season that is upon us will see at least three examples of college basketball embracing numbers ever tighter.
During the summer, the NCAA announced it will change how its Selection Committee evaluates, selects and seeds teams for the NCAA Tournament. The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) is out. The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) is in. The NET represents an upgrade to more modern analytic evaluation, the NCAA said.
The NCAA also granted a waiver to allow teams in the 2018 Hall of Fame Classic Nov. 19-20 to use live stats and analytics on the benches during games. These numbers will be provided by ShotTracker.
Players for Nebraska, Texas Tech, Southern Cal and Missouri State will wear sensors. The numbers available to coaches during games will include shot charts, real-time lineup efficiencies and possession-based statistics (how effective offensive plays or defensive alignments are).
Ken Pomeroy, who is synonymous with analytical analysis, did not see a revolution in basketball about to happen.
“It’s hard to say what effect this will have,” Pomeroy wrote in an email. “I suspect most of this stuff was tracked by a GA (graduate assistant) on the bench, and this will just allow them to do something else during the game.
“I’m skeptical it will give anyone a big advantage.”
Then there’s the NCAA giving schools a new software option for keeping statistics this season. It’s called NCAA LiveStats, and will be used during the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
NCAA LiveStats will include such features as shot charts, a plus-minus rating for players, player and lineup efficiencies and how many of a player’s shots were blocked.
With the introduction of the new system coming in late summer, UK as well as most, if not all other SEC teams chose not to use NCAA LiveStats this season, spokesman Eric Lindsey said.
Happy birthday
To Chuck Verderber. He turned 59 on Saturday. ... To Trey Lyles. He turns 23 on Monday. ... To Doron Lamb. He turns 27 on Tuesday. ... To Jonny David. He turns 22 on Wednesday. ... To former UK coach Billy Gillispie. He turns 59 on Wednesday.