CBS
Sportsline has a column up with awards for the '90s, and they pick Duke as
the program of the '90's heading into the '00's. What are we to call this?
Anyway, big whoop. Kentucky can have the 20th century, it's all but over.
We'll take the 21st!
There were some very interesting things in this list, among them ranking the
coaches of the 90s as Fang Williams, Coach K, and Roy Williams. First of all,
Roy is a superb coach, but his teams have screwed our polls up for a decade and
we're fed up with it. No sup(erlatives) for you! We say throw out either
Williams or Williams, add Pitino, and if K or Pitino is #1, either way, it's a
fair pick.
Then, for player of the decade - excuse us, but Wayne Turner over Laettner?
There's the obvious fact that Laettner made the Final Four 4 times, to Turner's
3, and hit the shot of the whatever (you decide), and not only that but took out
UConn in the regional finals on an incredible clutch shot as a sophomore.
Add to that his mastery of Shaquille O' Neil, his brilliant second half against
Michigan, his perfect shooting performance against Kentucky, and his brilliant
performance against UNLV when no one thought they could lose - Turner was a good
player who had a lot of success, but good as it was it couldn't stack up to
Laettner's. No one has, frankly. To pose the question more bluntly: who
would you rather have in a Final Four game, Laettner or Turner?