Anaheim, Calif. ? The winning team had the buzz-headed kid who fought back a scream.
“With it all on the line, if you lose you are gone,” Kansas University’s Nick Collison said. “I will be proud of this one for a long time.”
The losing team had the buzz-headed kid who fought back the tears.
“I’m so disappointed that this team can never play together again,” Duke’s J.J. Redick said.
The winning team sat hunched in front of lockers long afterward, uniforms still plastered to bodies, hair still soaked in sweat.
“They hustled, we hustled, the same kind of teams, back and forth and tough,” Kansas’ Jeff Graves said.
The losing team spent all that time in the showers, cleansing themselves of excuses.
“I have no regrets,” said Duke’s Dahntay Jones.
It began with a couple of old-fashioned charging fouls. It ended with old-fashioned sportsmanship, players from college basketball’s two greatest programs carefully lined up to shake each other’s hands like it was Saturday morning at the YMCA.
Our good fortune, of course, was that it was Thursday night at the Arrowhead Pond, the West Regional semifinals, and a chance to remember college basketball as it used to be.
It was Kansas 69, Duke 65, and thank you to both.
Everything the game has lost, particularly in Los Angeles, showed up for 40 minutes here in all its floor-burned glory.
Two of the game’s best coaches, two of its grandest traditions, two halves that should be videotaped and shown to everyone who thinks basketball cannot survive with the words ally and oop.
The words Thursday were defense and passing, rebounding and running, working and working.
The squeaking wasn’t from the player’s mouths, but their shirts as they skidded across the floor while trying to draw fouls.
Their wild gesturing wasn’t directed toward themselves, but their teammates, as they talked and schemed and directed.
The only time anybody here pumped their chest was when they were out of breath. The only time they talked to the referee was to ask for the ball.
The only time they strutted was never.
The best statistics weren’t the points or rebounds, but the combined 13 blocked shots and 10 steals and 25 assists.
And, oh yes, those five charging fouls.
Residents of Westwood haven’t seen five charging fouls in five years.
Even Thursday night’s trash talk wasn’t about trash, but game.
“Back off!” shouted Duke’s Redick.
“I’m getting all ball!” shouted Kansas’ Kirk Hinrich.
All ball, all the time, for 40 glorious minutes in front of thousands who gave both teams standing ovations.
Said Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski: “I’ve been to a lot of Final Fours and championship-level games, and this was a championship-level game.”
Said Kansas’ Roy Williams: “It was a sensational college basketball game. We feel very fortunate to be the one with the most points.”
You know something? Until those coaches talked in the postgame interview session, you didn’t even know they were there.
And to think of the sideline show they could have performed.
Williams is the winningest active coach, but Krzyzewski has a better career tournament winning percentage, and that’s just the start of the rivalry.
Yet both men did little more than stand there and point and plead and orchestrate.
Two of the game’s best minds, and it was all about the players.
And in the end, this game was about the game itself and everything that is still right about it.
It was Williams calling timeout early in the second half and shouting to his team about regrets.
“I told them, let’s do this for today, so in May or June, we don’t have to think about what we could have done different,” he said.
It was about Duke responding with their trademark slap-of-the-floor defense that stunned the Jayhawks with its resolve.
“It was like, they didn’t quit, they wouldn’t quit,” said Kansas’ Aaron Miles.
How fun.
“If we lost, I wouldn’t think it was fun,” groused Hinrich.
What a game.
“Not after we lost,” grumbled Redick.
