For one night in November — in a preview of what’s to come with the Final Four here in April — Atlanta was the center of the college basketball universe.
Four of the game’s storied programs, Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State, met for the second of three annual Champions Classic doubleheader events, which are owned and operated by ESPN. The event drew 22,847 fans on a Tuesday night in a college football town — of course, most of them wore Kentucky blue.
Organizers were pleased with the attendance, which topped the sellout crowd of 19,979 at Madison Square Garden last season for the inaugural event. So were the coaches.
“It was a heck of a game, a heck of a doubleheader to have these four programs in the Georgia Dome,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the Blue Devils held off the defending national champion Wildcats 75-68. “It’s terrific. This concept has been amazing, the Garden last year and Georgia Dome this year and top quality play.”
This is the only time in the Champions Classic’s three-year run that it will have been held in the same city where the Final Four will be played. Last year’s Champions Classic was in New York, and the Final Four was in New Orleans. Next year the Champions Classic is scheduled for Chicago, and the Final Four for Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
All four teams are in the top 25, and three of them in the top 10 — No. 3 Kentucky, No. 7 Kansas and No. 9 Duke. Two of those teams played for the national championship last season, Kentucky and Kansas. Both games Tuesday were close. No. 21 Michigan State upset Kansas 67-64. Kentucky trailed Duke by three points with 3:29 to go.
“Full house, two great games, and to get that caliber of play that early in the season was really exciting,” ESPN’s senior director of events Clint Overby said. “In my mind that was really tournament-style action early in the season. So we were really excited and very pleased with the results.”
The coaches who rank first and second in wins in men’s Division I basketball history were there: Krzyzewski coached Duke to his 929th all-time victory, while Bob Knight, the man whose 902 wins Krzyzewski surpassed at last year’s Champions Classic, broadcast the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader for ESPN.
ESPN promoted the event throughout the day.
“I had friends of mine calling me that were watching TV all day,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “They’re making this game to be the NCAA Final Four, the championship.”
Calipari might not have taken it that far, but acknowledged, “This was a big game for these guys,” referring to his talented, freshmen-laden team.
Kentucky fans dominated the crowd, but the celebs came out, too. Former Braves pitcher John Smoltz sat in the third row near the Michigan State bench, cheering on his beloved Spartans. He was sitting behind Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory, a disciple of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.
Both Christian Laettner and Aminu Timberlake were there, one the former Duke player who made the legendary buzzer-beater in 1992 against Kentucky and the other the Kentucky player whose chest Laettner famously stomped on during the course of that game.
Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, a former forward for California, took it all in from about six rows behind press row.
The man of the hour, though, was Dick Vitale, ESPN broadcaster and the face of college basketball. He was enthusiastic and larger than life in his midcourt seat to broadcast Duke’s win over Kentucky, where Izzo passed by shortly after Michigan State won the first game and said softly to him “We stole one.”
Vitale showed how genuine his nature really is. Even without cameras rolling, Vitale gathered a group of Kentucky cheerleaders and handed someone his personal cellphone to snap a photo of him with three cheerleaders on each arm.
But the on-the-court action is what made the event memorable for the players involved, and the coaches used the experience with March in mind.
“I think it helps all four of these teams tonight playing in this atmosphere,” Krzyzewski said. “How many teams get a chance to play in this atmosphere? There won’t be another one like this until March, and no matter what the tournament is, to have the Dome with 22,000 fans. And what a setting. …
“That’s one of the great things about this concept,” he said. “That’s why we wanted to be in it. To switch locations and to have these four storied programs together under one roof for one night is a great thing, in only mid-November.”
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