YouTube Gold: Grant Hill Dominates Glenn Robinson In The 1994 NCAA Tournament

A brilliant defensive performance by the Duke legend

In 1994, Purdue was riding high with Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson and came into the NCAA tournament as the #1 seed in the Southwest.

Duke, with Grant Hill as a senior, was the #2 seed in that regional. And there was no doubt that Robinson presented a major challenge for Duke’s defense.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Hill stood up and said he wanted to guard him. At 6-7 and 240, Robinson was a load who had averaged around 30 ppg and 10 rpg. Hill was a better player, but, relatively speaking, he was wispy compared to Robinson and his stats weren’t nearly as gaudy.

Hill held Robinson to 6-22 for 13 points and forced six turnovers as Duke won 69-60.

Jeff Capel and Antonio Lang had 19 each and Cherokee Parks had 15. Chris Collins had five and no one on the bench scored.

Hill scored 11 but his points were secondary. What was most important was shutting down a tremendous offensive talent. There was no way Purdue was going to win with their star held to just a bit more than a third of his normal output.

Christian Laettner gets a lot of praise as Duke’s best ever, but you could make the argument for Hill just as easily. He was something else.