BleedGopher
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per Souhan:
Duke had fallen behind by 22 points to Maryland. Mike Krzyzewski hadn’t won a national title since the last time he coached in Minneapolis, nine years earlier, and was facing an early and perhaps embarrassing Final four exit with a team seemingly built for greatness.
It was Saturday, March 31, 2001, and the Metrodome was filled with noise. Not the kind of can’t-hear-yourself-scream jet engines of Twins World Series and Vikings-Packers games, but the joyful cacophony of college basketball. Duke fans were screaming, Duke haters were screaming louder, and pep bands dueled for aural supremacy.
Duke’s reserves were screaming, too, right into the faces of Shane Battier and Jay Williams as they sat on the bench and Krzyzewski huddled with his assistants. Then Krzyzewski turned, returned to the huddle and inadvertently looked me right in the eye, flinching as if I had interrupted an intimate ritual, a father praying with children.
It was a strange moment, and one of my favorite memories as a Minnesota-based sportswriter — sitting within a few feet of this particular kind of genius, as Duke rallied to win the game, then won the national title and put Krzyzewski back on track to being considered one of the greatest coaches ever.
Over the next few days, a curtained version of U.S. Bank Stadium will play host to the 2019 Final Four. What visitors may not know or remember is that the decrepit Metrodome, one of the world’s least likely venues for premium hoops events, provided the stage for three remarkable tournaments that brought a procession of Who’s Who and Who-Would-Become basketball names to the stadium site that once flanked the original Hubert’s.
http://www.startribune.com/the-ugly...its-featured-events-over-the-years/508141662/
Go Gophers!!
Duke had fallen behind by 22 points to Maryland. Mike Krzyzewski hadn’t won a national title since the last time he coached in Minneapolis, nine years earlier, and was facing an early and perhaps embarrassing Final four exit with a team seemingly built for greatness.
It was Saturday, March 31, 2001, and the Metrodome was filled with noise. Not the kind of can’t-hear-yourself-scream jet engines of Twins World Series and Vikings-Packers games, but the joyful cacophony of college basketball. Duke fans were screaming, Duke haters were screaming louder, and pep bands dueled for aural supremacy.
Duke’s reserves were screaming, too, right into the faces of Shane Battier and Jay Williams as they sat on the bench and Krzyzewski huddled with his assistants. Then Krzyzewski turned, returned to the huddle and inadvertently looked me right in the eye, flinching as if I had interrupted an intimate ritual, a father praying with children.
It was a strange moment, and one of my favorite memories as a Minnesota-based sportswriter — sitting within a few feet of this particular kind of genius, as Duke rallied to win the game, then won the national title and put Krzyzewski back on track to being considered one of the greatest coaches ever.
Over the next few days, a curtained version of U.S. Bank Stadium will play host to the 2019 Final Four. What visitors may not know or remember is that the decrepit Metrodome, one of the world’s least likely venues for premium hoops events, provided the stage for three remarkable tournaments that brought a procession of Who’s Who and Who-Would-Become basketball names to the stadium site that once flanked the original Hubert’s.
http://www.startribune.com/the-ugly...its-featured-events-over-the-years/508141662/
Go Gophers!!
