Damn You Chris Duhon...

Although Duke and Connecticut have played numerous times over the years, just simply mention the two teams in the same sentence and any gambler will immediately cringe. The game was the 2004 NCAA Tournament Final Four game featuring Duke as the #1 seed from the South region versus Connecticut as the #2 seed from the West region. To many, this was the unofficial national championship game as the two teams had been jockeying back and forth as the regular season #1 in most polls. The game featured more NBA talent then the current Cavaliers roster with names like Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor for the Huskies and J.J. Redick and Luol Deng for the Blue Devils. The closing line had the Huskies favored by 2 which seemed like free cheese to most gamblers as Connecticut was rolling through the tournament, winning their first four games by an average of 17.5 points.

Fast forward to the final minute of the game when Emeka Okafor, who was useless in the first half, drank some tiger blood and scored back to back baskets to put the Huskies up by one, 76-75, with 26 seconds left to play. The Blue Devils turned to J.J. Redick, arguably the most hated man in college athletics in my life time, who got stripped on his way to the basket with Rashad Anderson of the Huskies recovering the loose ball. Skipping ahead through made free throws and missed baskets, the Huskies led 79-75 with only a couple of seconds to go. With the game in hand, the celebration began early for both the Huskies and wealthy gamblers alike, but not on Chris Duhon’s watch. Instead of walking off the court with his head in his hands like his fellow Dukies, Duhon took the in bounds pass and launched a half court shot that fell meaninglessly into the basket. Wait, did that really just happen? Surely time had already expired, right? Nope. As I sank into my bar seat, I scanned the rest of the bar to see if anyone else realized what had just happened. Slowly, faces across the bar were riddled with shock and the degenerated gambler in each group of friends was exposed. It’s reported that any where from $30 million to $100 million dollars switched hands due to that ‘meaningless’ shot. Fortunately, I was still a poor college kid and my contribution to that total was limited but none the less the sting and the memory of that game will live on forever.