Watching 98 Duke comeback

armchairpg

All-Conference
Oct 24, 2012
2,608
1,736
113
Seen this so many time but it felt like a good one to go back to on a day like this.

some random thoughts:

-Turner couldn’t shoot a lick outside of 12 feet but he finished at the rim and did everything else you want a point guard to do.

tubby coaches a great game. Honestly out coached K. His substitutions, how he deprived k of oxygen once k had burned all of his timeouts.

maglores wojo incident sparked the first mini run because wojo sat on the bench and duke turned it over and we hit shots.

packer was annoying but he talked only about the game. Not ice cream or other nonsense.

duke could not buy a basket the last 6 minutes.

we out hustled them without question. That team was deep as hell. Ironically late in the second half both Mohamed and magloire were on the bench. Tub went with a smaller more mobile line up and it paid off.

obviously we rained threes for a bunch of possessions.

I was think with about 9 minutes left I would have felt pretty good if I was a duke fan. UK had made a bit of a run but seemed to stall
and time was ticking.

lastly the amount of talent and experience on the floor was crazy, our team plus battier, brand, et al.

mall these years later and it is still a relief when the final horn sounds.
 

Montana81

Heisman
Aug 12, 2004
82,726
29,410
113
I go back and watch that one at least once a year. Tubby gets a lot of grief, and he probably should have moved on a little sooner, but a lot of people give pitino credit for that title and Ive always thought that was unfair. I don’t think pitino could have won the title with that team. Tubby did a masterful job down the stretch of that season.

In game coaching/adjustments were definitely a strength for him.
 
Last edited:
Mar 23, 2007
12,053
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0
Seen this so many time but it felt like a good one to go back to on a day like this.

some random thoughts:

-Turner couldn’t shoot a lick outside of 12 feet but he finished at the rim and did everything else you want a point guard to do.

tubby coaches a great game. Honestly out coached K. His substitutions, how he deprived k of oxygen once k had burned all of his timeouts.

maglores wojo incident sparked the first mini run because wojo sat on the bench and duke turned it over and we hit shots.

packer was annoying but he talked only about the game. Not ice cream or other nonsense.

duke could not buy a basket the last 6 minutes.

we out hustled them without question. That team was deep as hell. Ironically late in the second half both Mohamed and magloire were on the bench. Tub went with a smaller more mobile line up and it paid off.

obviously we rained threes for a bunch of possessions.

I was think with about 9 minutes left I would have felt pretty good if I was a duke fan. UK had made a bit of a run but seemed to stall
and time was ticking.

lastly the amount of talent and experience on the floor was crazy, our team plus battier, brand, et al.

mall these years later and it is still a relief when the final horn sounds.


I watched this replay myself yesterday. The 98 Duke game is still my favorite game to rewatch. UK was down 17 points with 9:30 to go in the second half to the hated Dukies with the terribly biased Billy Packer doing the commentary for the game. You really get a clear sense of Billy’s love for Coach K and Wojo in particular in this game. The enthusiasm in is his voice when Duke made a play was noticeably different than when Kentucky did.

There was a play where Jamal McGloire got tangled up under Wojo when they fell to the floor. Jamal was merely trying to get up and Wojo started going into wild exaggerated contortions like Jamal was in the process of snapping his spine. It was clearly all an act but Billy went off on Jamal for an extended time. However, later in the second half a Duke player blind sided Jeff Shepherd with a forearm to his face knocking Jeff immediately to the floor. What was Packer’s comment? Absolutely nothing! Jim Nantz made a few comments but Packer was nothing but crickets. This was also during UK’s big run in the second half. The Duke player got called for a flagrant technical foul.

UK cut a 17 point Duke lead to one point in 3:30. This is my favorite UK comeback game because it was for a trip to the Final Four and against a bitter rival. The other thing I liked about this game was that the cameras kept showing Coach K’s wife during UK’s run. She was tighter than a bark on a tree. She never smiled or applauded even when her friends around her were doing so. This was the start of three straight come from behind (double digit) wins as UK went onto win the national title. Fortunately, I was able to attend that Final Four in San Antonio, still one of the happiest weekends of my life.
 

armchairpg

All-Conference
Oct 24, 2012
2,608
1,736
113
Packer did love him some wojo! I think wojo wigged our because his back cramped up in the middle of the scrum. That would explain Him acting like he had been shot.

rough game. Early on magloire took a shot to the face and was bleeding from the cheek. Turner drove in and hurt His shoulder on the standard. I think everyone took a beating at some point.
 

rmattox

All-Conference
Nov 26, 2014
6,786
4,006
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Seems like packer was about to soil his pants in anguish during the Ky run....Duke needs to call a time-out!!! but they had none to call.
Packer is way down the list of tolerable announcers.
 

Baller Cal

Heisman
Dec 28, 2019
7,014
15,822
0
Seems like packer was about to soil his pants in anguish during the Ky run....Duke needs to call a time-out!!! but they had none to call.
Packer is way down the list of tolerable announcers.

I had chills up and down my spine in the Alamo Dome in 1998 after we won. The chant started SEC, SEC, SEC and then BBN started chanting “We want Packer!” It was glorious.
 

Elliott Tim

All-American
Dec 10, 2005
10,122
6,290
0
I go back and watch that one at least once a year. Tubby gets a lot of grief, and he probably should have moved on a little sooner, but a lot of people give pitino credit for that title and Ive always thought that was unfair. I don’t think pitino could have won the title with that team. Tubby did a masterful job down the stretch of that season.

In game coaching/adjustments were definitely a strength for him.
That tournament was Tubby's day in the sun. He clearly outcoached his opponents.
 

jrpross_rivals

Heisman
Feb 21, 2008
17,543
36,054
113
I watched this replay myself yesterday. The 98 Duke game is still my favorite game to rewatch. UK was down 17 points with 9:30 to go in the second half to the hated Dukies with the terribly biased Billy Packer doing the commentary for the game. You really get a clear sense of Billy’s love for Coach K and Wojo in particular in this game. The enthusiasm in is his voice when Duke made a play was noticeably different than when Kentucky did.

There was a play where Jamal McGloire got tangled up under Wojo when they fell to the floor. Jamal was merely trying to get up and Wojo started going into wild exaggerated contortions like Jamal was in the process of snapping his spine. It was clearly all an act but Billy went off on Jamal for an extended time. However, later in the second half a Duke player blind sided Jeff Shepherd with a forearm to his face knocking Jeff immediately to the floor. What was Packer’s comment? Absolutely nothing! Jim Nantz made a few comments but Packer was nothing but crickets. This was also during UK’s big run in the second half. The Duke player got called for a flagrant technical foul.

UK cut a 17 point Duke lead to one point in 3:30. This is my favorite UK comeback game because it was for a trip to the Final Four and against a bitter rival. The other thing I liked about this game was that the cameras kept showing Coach K’s wife during UK’s run. She was tighter than a bark on a tree. She never smiled or applauded even when her friends around her were doing so. This was the start of three straight come from behind (double digit) wins as UK went onto win the national title. Fortunately, I was able to attend that Final Four in San Antonio, still one of the happiest weekends of my life.
Wojo was a puss and Billy Packer fell right into his act, hook line & sinker. [laughing]
 

Nubb16

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
128,716
10,042
67
I go back and watch that one at least once a year. Tubby gets a lot of grief, and he probably should have moved on a little sooner, but a lot of people give pitino credit for that title and Ive always thought that was unfair. I don’t think pitino could have won the title with that team. Tubby did a masterful job down the stretch of that season.

In game coaching/adjustments were definitely a strength for him.
In that Duke game Tubby brilliantly refused to call a timeout at the end to keep coach K from rallying his troops as K prematurely burned his TOs. One of the best games the Tubbster coaches for sure.
 

*dezyDECO*

All-Conference
Nov 9, 2014
7,658
2,469
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In that Duke game Tubby brilliantly refused to call a timeout at the end to keep coach K from rallying his troops as K prematurely burned his TOs. One of the best games the Tubbster coaches for sure.


Great move by Tubby.

Strategy like that will likely never come into play again, what with all the checking-the-monitor for this or that... that the refs do now. There will always be something they need to look at. It all amounts to free TOs for the coaches, and a break for tired/nervous players.
 

armchairpg

All-Conference
Oct 24, 2012
2,608
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In that Duke game Tubby brilliantly refused to call a timeout at the end to keep coach K from rallying his troops as K prematurely burned his TOs. One of the best games the Tubbster coaches for sure.

It was hilarious. You could see k sweating and then during free throws he tried to steal extra seconds of instruction and ice the shooter.
 

hotelblue

Heisman
Jul 6, 2006
41,683
13,121
0
come on you knew kentucky was going to make a run. we’d be in close games in the sect and would win by 20+ because of how we finished. i believe k said afterwards that they knew we were going to make a run. as talented as they were they knew how good we were. we had 9-10 guys with ff experience and that kind of experience isn’t going to give anything away in the end. they capitalized early and langdon and even wojo were hitting shots and then edwards and turner and shep completely shut them and avery down the second half. brand was likely not 100% and i still thought their front court mostly negated ours in that game. we were stronger though no doubt. padgett, magloire and mohammed player better in basically every other tournament game compared to that one. but they absolutely had no answer for heshimu. he physically ate their lunch by himself during all the key stretches. guarding wojo even. that tip out to mills is one of the great effort plays in kentucky history. a truly awesome play that led to the shot heard round the bluegrass.
 

hotelblue

Heisman
Jul 6, 2006
41,683
13,121
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My favorite part is when Padgett catches the ball at the top of the key and rises to shoot and packer says “huge, huge”. Get me every time for some reason.
packer knew since ‘97 that when padgett had his feet set on the perimeter you couldn’t leave him open. if you watch our tournament games ‘97-‘99 he was giving pretty mad respect to him as an inside outside player. he made a lot of comments about his rebounding also. padgett had those huge hands and knew how to protect the ball.
 
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Ugoff

Heisman
May 7, 2009
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I remember watching a game earlier in that season where Billy Packer picked 16 teams that could win the title. UK wasn't among them.
 
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I remember watching a game earlier in that season where Billy Packer picked 16 teams that could win the title. UK wasn't among them.


ACC Billy was always anti UK but this game may have been his high water mark for his conspicuous effusive praise of Duke and his begrudging acknowledgement of Kentucky’s success. Packer barely made a positive reference to UK during its incredible 3:30 run. Nantz, at least kept pointing out what UK was doing while Billy sucked hid thumb.
 

HagginHall1999

Heisman
Oct 19, 2018
16,008
28,480
113
Seen this so many time but it felt like a good one to go back to on a day like this.

some random thoughts:

-Turner couldn’t shoot a lick outside of 12 feet but he finished at the rim and did everything else you want a point guard to do.

tubby coaches a great game. Honestly out coached K. His substitutions, how he deprived k of oxygen once k had burned all of his timeouts.

maglores wojo incident sparked the first mini run because wojo sat on the bench and duke turned it over and we hit shots.

packer was annoying but he talked only about the game. Not ice cream or other nonsense.

duke could not buy a basket the last 6 minutes.

we out hustled them without question. That team was deep as hell. Ironically late in the second half both Mohamed and magloire were on the bench. Tub went with a smaller more mobile line up and it paid off.

obviously we rained threes for a bunch of possessions.

I was think with about 9 minutes left I would have felt pretty good if I was a duke fan. UK had made a bit of a run but seemed to stall
and time was ticking.

lastly the amount of talent and experience on the floor was crazy, our team plus battier, brand, et al.

mall these years later and it is still a relief when the final horn sounds.

I rwatched the game on Saturday. Unbelievable. Five consecutive possessions.during run.

Made Three (3)
Made Three (3)
Made 2 and Flagorant Foul + FTs (4)
Made Three (3)
Made Three (3)

Duke lead all but gone. The crazy part is that Duke still held on to lead for a bit and we fought thru some more adverse situations down the stretch.

The Magloire Wojo scrum was priceless...once in a lifetime.
 

Notelvis2

Junior
Jul 9, 2005
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I've pulled out a dozen classic UK games on DVD thinking I would watch one every other night or so for the duration of what would have been March Madness. I watched the 1986 UK-Western game from the second round of the tournament in Charlotte, NC (a game that I was live in attendance at with my father) Saturday afternoon. Tonight I think I'll watch the 1975 Kentucky - Indiana game. I have the 98 Duke game and am kind of saving it for last.......that or the 2011 Ohio State game.
 
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