– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — When Duke and St. John’s take the court on Friday evening, integral parts of each basketball program will be staring at one of their most painful memories in their NCAA Tournament histories right in the face, and winning may mean less about getting one step closer to the Final Four than exorcising those demons.
The Blue Devils, No. 1 seed in the East Region, square off against the fifth-seeded Red Storm in a match-up pairing two of the most tradition-rich programs … and two of the eight programs in Division I history with over 2,000 victories. Despite the more than 4,000 wins the schools have combined, two defeats come to mind more than anything as both arrive at the nation’s capital.
St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino was on the wrong end of, almost inarguably, the greatest college basketball game in the modern NCAA Tournament era. As then-coach of Kentucky, Pitino and the Wildcats had their 1992 Final Four dreams shattered at the hands of Duke and the buzzer-beating shot heard around the college basketball world by Duke’s Christian Laettner. The Blue Devils, two games later, completed their journey to back-to-back national championships. Pitino did get some measure of revenge over 20 years later against the Blue Devils, as his Louisville Cardinals took out Duke in the 2013 Elite Eight on the Cardinals’ way to the national title. But, once the Red Storm eked their way through their second-round tournament game against Kansas last Sunday and confirmed a match-up with the Blue Devils, Pitino allowed his mind to talk about that old wound.
One of Duke’s most painful defeats in the 21st century came in the same city, and same building, back in 2019, the last time the East Regionals were inside Capital One Arena. The presence of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam REddish wasn’t enough for the Blue Devils to reach the Final Four, stopped in the Elite Eight by Michigan State after a last-second three-pointer game the Spartans the lead. Of course, Izzo and the Spartans are also in Washington D.C. this weekend, though they’re on the other side of the bracket and would have to defeat No. 2 Connecticut in tonight’s second game on Friday night.
Speaking of the Huskies and ghosts, it’s been 20 years since Connecticut was on the receiving end of a monumental upset by Cinderella team George Mason as the Patriots defeated UConn to complete their fairy-tale run to Final Four. I’ll give you one guess as to where that George Mason-Connecticut game took place.
Ding, ding, ding if you said Washington, D.C.!
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday’s NCAA Tournament regional semifinals, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Terry Mayo Jr. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are XX pictures in total.
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