Coach K Offers Funny Reponse to Rick Pitino Bringing Up Christian Laettner’s Iconic Shot

Right after St. John’s beat Kansas thanks to a buzzer beater from Dylan Darling in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Red Storm coach Rick Pitino brought up a well-known moment in which he was on the losing side of a clutch buzzer beater. Remember “The Shot” from Duke’s Christian Laettner against Kentucky in the 1992 tournament? Pitino will never forget it.

Pitino somewhat joked that he hopes to get revenge on Duke on Friday when St. John’s face the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16. Maybe his team will get a buzzer beater to win the game in the end.

“I’ve been on winning at the buzzer and losing at the buzzer,” Pitino said on Sunday. “... You win some, you lose some. But, I’m hoping we can get Duke at the buzzer next to make up for that Christian Laettner shot.”

Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who led the Blue Devils when Laettner made history, responded to Pitino’s comments on Monday, giving a mic drop response.

“It happened 34 years ago. None of these kids, including the international players, were born yet,” Krzyzewski said on the Pat McAfee Show. “Rick is really smart, he’s one of the best ever. I’m sure he brought that up just to get it out of the way. I will tell you this—one of the most impressive things he ever did was the way he handled that game, not just coaching the game, but what he did afterwards. He celebrated what was a devastating defeat. I’ve always admired what he did with that game.”

"That Christian Laettner shot happened 34 years ago..

None of these players on these teams were even born yet" 😂😂 ~ Coach K #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/8uEXinx1pn
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 23, 2026

Coach K gave Pitino his flowers, too. The two legendary coaches competed against each other for decades before Krzyzewski’s retirement in '22.

Coach K responds to Maliq Brown’s cakewalk comments in first round

Duke survived a scare in the first round of the NCAA tournament as they came back and beat No. 16 Siena 71–65. Blue Devils forward Maliq Brown went viral for some comments he made at halftime, at a time when Duke was down 43–32 to the 16th seed.

“We thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into this game,” Brown said. “Now we know what it is. We’ve just got to respond back the way we usually do.”

During Coach K’s appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, the host asked the legendary coach if he could talk to Duke about not calling the Sweet 16 game vs. St. John’s a “cakewalk” this time, because it probably won’t be. Krzyzewski made sure to remind McAfee that he doesn’t coach the Blue Devils now, Jon Scheyer does.

“Scheyer’s the only one who should be talking to our team.”

Let Duke know that this isn't gonna be a cakewalk

Send Jon Scheyer a text 😂😂 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/cmmRbfYRaY
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 23, 2026

It sounds like Krzyzewski isn’t going to put his true thoughts out there about Brown’s cakewalk comment. If anything, Brown and the rest of the Blue Devils learned their lesson to not say something like that again—it could come back to bite them in the butt.

After the first round win over Siena, Scheyer admitted it was the “toughest” No. 1 vs. No. 16 seeded game of his career. Duke had a much smoother second round contest vs. TCU, winning 81–58 to book a trip to the Sweet 16.