KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thirty-four years ago this month, Bobby Hurley and John Pelphrey were the quintessential “coach on the floor” players in the greatest college basketball game ever played—Duke 104, Kentucky 103 in the East Regional final. They were smart, relentless, passionate extensions of Hall of Fame coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino. In a way, their basketball lives became intertwined that dramatic night in Philadelphia.
Their jerseys hang in the rafters at blueblood schools: Hurley’s at Duke, where he was the star point guard on two national championship teams; Pelphrey’s at Kentucky, where he helped resuscitate a program decimated by NCAA sanctions. Then they followed what seemed like manifest destiny into the coaching profession.
