Every epic game comes with a defining moment — if not more than one — and for the North Carolina-Duke NCAA Tournament national semifinal of a year ago, that moment remains clear enough. It will endure, even if almost nothing else about the photographs capturing it lasted all that much past the instant Caleb Love rose and released and made The Shot.
Look back at it now, a year later. There’s Love, hanging in midair, frozen in time, feet perfectly aligned, his right hand angling downward, the sign of a textbook follow-through, the ball in mid-flight, stopped so that its Wilson logo is clear. There’s 26 seconds remaining and the Tar Heels are leading by a precarious point, but soon enough it’ll be a four-point lead. And soon enough the UNC supporters in the New Orleans Superdome will unleash a delirious roar. And not long after that, Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career will be over.
All of that, though, comes later, either in milliseconds or minutes. Now there’s the moment.
