INDIANAPOLIS - Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino are finally doing an encore.
For the first time since their teams played perhaps the greatest game in the history of the NCAA Tournament, Krzyzewski and Pitino will meet today when top-seeded Louisville faces Duke. In the regional finals, no less.
Never mind that few of their current players were even born in 1992. Or that Pitino is no longer at Kentucky, having switched sides in the state’s civil war after his brief trip to Boston and the NBA ended badly.
Krzyzewski and Pitino are forever linked by that one game in Philadelphia, immortalized by Christian Laettner’s improbable shot.
“It’s one of those moments in time that helped define our sport,” Krzyzewski said Saturday. “When I’ve talked to Rick about it, we realize we were the lucky guys. We had different roles at that time, but we were both lucky to be there.”
Said Pitino, “It was like being in Carnegie Hall and seeing the best musician or the best singer. Just sitting there in amazement of what they were doing out on the basketball court.”
Krzyzewski and Pitino are two of the top coaches of their generation, with five NCAA titles and 1,618 victories between them. Yet for all of their success, and for as good a friends as they are, Krzyzewski and Pitino rarely play each other.
When Louisville (32-5) and Duke (30-5) played in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in November - Duke won - it was the first time Krzyzewski and Pitino had played each other since 1992. Today’s game will be their third meeting ever.
“That’s why we got them in the conference. Got to start doing this a little bit more,” Krzyzewski joked, referring to Louisville moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But almost nothing could top that first meeting between them.
The Blue Devils, led by Laettner and Grant Hill, were defending national champions in 1992. Kentucky was on the rise again after two years on probation. When they met in the old Spectrum for the East Region final, it was a showdown of the 1 and 2 seeds, a game worthy of a national championship.
“It was such a high-scoring game with so much perfection in the way players passed and shot the ball. That’s what made it stand the test of time,” Pitino said. “It was a game where two coaches could sit back and watch great players perform at the highest level.”
Sports, Pages 30 on 03/31/2013