Grant Hill ’s Hall of Fame career in the NBA is what he’s most well-known for, but before that, he enjoyed a successful four-year stint in college with Duke . Hill’s strong play for the Blue Devils helped him get drafted with the third overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft.
In his first two seasons, Hill won back-to-back championships with Duke to quickly secure his legacy as a great college basketball player. While both wins were great, Hill shared how the feeling of winning it all was different in 1991 and 1992.
Hill shares the difference in his two championships with Duke
Despite just being a freshman during the 1990-91 campaign, Hill still had a big role for the team, as he started in 31 games and averaged 11.2 points per game. While Duke was the two seed in the Midwest side of the bracket, they weren’t exactly considered favorites to win it all.
As we all know, the Blue Devils managed to be the last team in 1991 and 1992. When looking back on this run, Hill singled out their semifinal game in 1991 against UNLV, which was the moment that made both title runs so different.
“The feeling that we had against Vegas in ‘91 was different than the feeling we had against the Fab Five a year later, ” Grant Hill said on The VC Show with Vince Carter . “When we beat Vegas it was almost like we arrived. It was almost like Taimak versus Sho’nuff in The Last Dragon where you get The Glow, or when Luke Skywalker…Yoda has been working with him, and all of the sudden he’s a jedi.”
“It was just instantly like, ‘Oh, we’ve arrived, and we know what it takes.’ We beat Kansas two days later for the championship, and came back the next year, and we were pretty dominant,” Hill added.
Hill does a good job differentiating his two National Championships
When you go on as dominant of a run as Duke did during this two-season stretch, it’s tough to truly make out the differences between the runs, But according to Hill, everything changed when they ground out a 79-77 victory over the Rebels.
UNLV was the one seed in the West bracket, and they had dominated on their way to their meeting with Duke. Hill and his team were underdogs, but they didn’t let that deter them from pulling off a big-time upset.
Once they did, everything changed. They had all the confidence to beat Kansas in the Final, and then they managed to go all the way again in the ensuing season, dispatching Michigan and “The Fab Five” in the Final to complete their repeat quest.
Sometimes, all it takes is one game for everything to change in the world of sports, and this battle against UNLV was that game for Hill and Duke. And without that win, it’s fair to wonder how the 1992 season would have fared for this title team.
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