Laettner: In the end, it was the usual suspect who pulled it off

PHILADELPHIA — The game, one of the great games the NCAA Tournament will ever see, already was over as the ball floated down toward the basket at the west end of the Spectrum. The game was over, and careers were over, either for Duke or Kentucky. Christian Laettner, who shot this ball toward the basket at the west end, he was done with college basketball. Or Sean Woods, who had just put Kentucky ahead at the east end, he was done. It was 103-102 for Kentucky in overtime. Somehow, over the roar of the month of March, you heard the buzzer sound at the Spectrum. When the ball came down, Duke was either still national champion, or it wasn't.

Laettner, the kind of college player Bill Walton was, had already broken the scoring record for the NCAA Tournament on this night in Philadelphia. He had made nine shots out of nine from the field and 10 shots out of 10 from the foul line. Now Christian Laettner, who had caught a pass from Grant Hill with 2.1 seconds left, that much time left in the East Regional or his storied basketball time at Duke, needed to somehow make the whole night a perfect 10, and send Duke back to the Final Four.

Christian Laettner found his perfect 10 at the west end of the Spectrum, Philadelphia. The ball went through the basket, the way it went through the basket two years ago at the Meadowlands, when Laettner somehow beat the clock and broke the heart of the University of Connecticut. The ball went through the basket for

Laettner because it always has at this time of year.

He caught Hill's pass, and he faked and dribbled once, because coach Mike Krzyzewski had told him in the huddle that he had time to dribble once. Then Laettner turned and shot this dream shot over Deron Feldhaus and John Pelphrey and the buzzer went off and the whole college season was up there finally at the west end of the Spectrum. Then the ball went through the basket and it was 104 for Duke and 103 for Kentucky, forever.

Laettner, in the game of his life, a game that made DukeUNLV last year look like some scrimmage, had scored the last eight points of the game for

Duke. With 32 seconds left, he had somehow made this extraordinary, off-balance bank shot from the left side of the basket to put Duke ahead 10098. It looked like he got fouled, but no foul was called, even though Laettner reacted as if he had been hit with a Philadelphia left hook by Joe Frazier. The ball went in. Laettner was 9-for-9 from the field now. Just that.

"I shouldn't be so surprised he won the game with the shot at the buzzer," Bobby Hurley said on the court when it was over. "The shot he made before that, he nearly ended up flat on his back." Bobby Hurley shook his head and said, "I should never be surprised at anything Christian does in a game."

Then somebody said to Hurley, "You must feel like this tremendous weight has been taken off your shoulders," and the pale little champ from St.

Anthony in Jersey City smiled and said, "Christian's shoulders."

Laettner ran when it was over, and he knew the shot counted, and he still had another weekend of college basketball, and Duke had the chance to win another title. He ran from the west end of the Spectrum, toward the Kentucky bench, and his teammates chased him, and the roar in the Spectrum now made the one right at the end of overtime sound like a whisper. You could see Laettner above everybody, the way he has been above college basketball for a while.

Sean Woods lay at the side of the court, face down, his face next to this one white pompon left there by a Duke cheerleader, who was chasing Laettner along with everybody else. Woods, a senior guard out of Indianapolis with both grace and heart, thought he had won the game for Kentucky at 103102, his shot going through the basket with two seconds and change left. Woods had made this crossover dribble and left Bobby Hurley behind and made this high, kid's playground thing right over Christian Laettner and Woods, you must understand, was going to be the guy who took out Duke in March of 1992.

"We wanted the last shot," Rick Pitino said afterward. "And we got it. Except there were two seconds left." Two seconds left for Christian Laettner to make it perfect 10s all around. Now Woods was on the floor, next to the white pompon, and it was his career that was over, and his team that had lost this splendid game of basketball that Duke and Kentucky played yesterday in Philadelphia. Somebody always gets left behind. Sean Woods got left behind. His teammate, Dale

Brown, finally came over and said something to him, and then Brown picked Woods up off the floor.

Woods had scored 22. Jamal Mashburn, who grew up where the Polo Grounds used to be and went to Cardinal Hayes and perhaps someday can be the kind of college player Laettner has been, scored 28, including a basket and a foul shot with 19 seconds left that had put Kentucky up, 101-100. Everything seemed to have broken right for Kentucky, almost magically right. Everything except the two seconds after the shot that was supposed to be the last shot of the East Regional.

"Unbelievable," Bobby Hurley kept saying, walking around in little circles in the middle of the court. "Unbelievable." And a couple of times, Hurley stuck a little something in the middle of the word. He stuck something in there so he could describe the game the way they would have described it at the Booker T. Washington Projects in Jersey City, where he used to play, or uptown New York City in the Rucker, where Mashburn used to play.

Woods walked slowly toward the east end. Laettner broke away from his teammates and walked over to him. Then Christian Laettner and Sean Woods embraced at the Spectrum, with everything happening around them. Woods said something, Laettner smiled, and nodded. He went to cut down the net. Woods went to the locker room, past the basket where he made the shot that was supposed to make him the hero of March.

Sean Woods forgot, for a couple of seconds, that is always Christian Laettner's job.