March Madness 1993: The day that Cal and freshman Jason Kidd upset mighty Duke.
Cal’s future NBA star ended Duke’s two-year NCAA title run in 1993 with late-game heroics
Now there’s The Sequel.
Jason Kidd, Cal’s growing legend, out-did himself Saturday with a had-to-see-it-to-believe-it basket that helped upset two-time defending national champion Duke 82-77 and send the Bears to a Midwest Regional semifinal game against Kansas on Thursday in St. Louis.
The basket takes on epic proportions, because Kidd made one with a similar degree of difficulty on the next-to-last play of the
Bears’ 66-64 victory over Louisiana State on Thursday.
This time, it came just as Cal’s 18-point second-half lead had evaporated into a 7776 Duke advantage — thanks to Bobby Hurley’s 32-point persistence and a 16-2 run by the Blue Devils — with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left.
Kidd dribbled along the left baseline, under the basket. He thought he saw Lamond Murray open and made a pass that became a loose ball, knocked free by Hurley. Suddenly, there was Kidd, picking it up and putting it in the basket. “Hurley went for the steal, and it went off his knee and bounced toward me,” Kidd said. “I’m not sure if I took a dribble or not. I had one thought, and that was to score the basket.”
It was more than just a case of right place, right time.
“Kids like him who are winners make that shot,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He made it. He wasn’t lucky. He had the heart to make the play.”
Kidd also drew a foul from Grant Hill and made the free throw for a 79-77 lead the Bears wouldn’t lose.
“It gave them the emotion,” Krzyzewski said. “They needed a play like that. I don’t think we lost it right there, but they were more resolved after that. A big-time play.”
Krzyzewski encouraged the Cal players as they walked to the podium for their postgame news conference:
“I admire the way you play. You deserve it. You guys have a chance, I’m telling you.”
He was talking about more than just their upcoming game with Kansas.
Suddenly, the great expectations from Day 1 of the Bears’ season — expectations that ex-coach Lou Campanelli said were unfair — are justified. This is a team that has won 11 of its last 12 games under a coach, Todd Bozeman, the players love and believe in. Tell them they can’t win their next game, and one or two after that?
This, too, is a team that LSU Coach Dale Brown said didn’t have a “prayer in the world” of beating Duke. If the country doesn’t begin believing in the Bears, that’s fine with them.
“I think they’ll believe it’s a fluke,” Bozeman said. “That’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”
The fans were for Cal, booing Duke, although CBSTV had to be hoping for a Kansas-duke matchup.
Instead, the network has a team making a statement, from Murray’s one-handed slam dunk on Cal’s opening basket to the magical shot by Kidd. Murray, playing the second half on a mildly sprained left ankle, finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds; Kidd had a line of 11 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds and four steals.
But even when Cal’s lead grew to 55-37 — and with Duke center Cherokee Parks sidelined by a sprained left ankle — the lead never was safe. The Bears also blew a 17-point lead in a loss to Washington State, but only the math is similar.
Hurley was turning this fabled matchup with Kidd into a beauty with his 32 points that kept Duke in the game. Grant Hill got caught up in the comeback, too, by making two 3-pointers to equal his career total in the category.
“It was a great college basketball game,” Bozeman said. “I want to thank the Lord to be associated with it.
“Now, as the old song goes, we’ll see you in St. Louie.”
Epilogue: Cal lost to Kansas 93-76 five days later in St. Louis.