The Shot (Duke–Kentucky)
| 1992 East Regional Final "The Shot" |
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| East Regional Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | March 28, 1992 | |||||||||||||||
| Arena | The Spectrum | |||||||||||||||
| Location | Philadelphia, PA | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 17,848 | |||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | |||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Verne Lundquist and Len Elmore | |||||||||||||||
The 1992 NCAA Tournament was highlighted by a game between Duke and Kentucky in the East Regional Final to determine the final spot in the Final Four. With 2.1 seconds remaining in overtime, defending national champion Duke trailed 103–102. Grant Hill threw a pass the length of the court to Christian Laettner, who faked right, dribbled once, turned, and hit a jumper as time expired for the 104-103 win. In 2004 Sports Illustrated deemed it the greatest college basketball game of all time, and ESPN included it as number 17 on its list of top 100 sports moments of the past 25 years (see ESPN25). It is ranked number one on the list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time compiled by USA Today in 2002.
The 1991-92 Kentucky Wildcats are one of the most revered teams in UK's long basketball history. The Wildcats were coming off a two-year postseason ban due to major recruiting violations committed during the tenure of Pitino's predecessor Eddie Sutton, although the NCAA found Sutton was not personally liable. The violations mainly centered on alleged cheating by former player Eric Manuel on the ACT college entrance exam and cash payments to the guardian of another former player, Chris Mills. This was notoriously highlighted on the cover of Sports Illustrated called "Kentucky's Shame".
The team's four seniors, three of whom were Kentucky natives, had remained loyal to the program throughout its probation, and would enter Kentucky basketball history as "The Unforgettables". They were:
Although the seniors were the heart and soul of the team, its biggest star was sophomore Jamal Mashburn, who would go on to become a consensus first-team All-American the following season and have a successful 12-year NBA career; he is now an NBA analyst for ESPN.
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