YouTube Gold: Jeff Capel’s 1995 Buzzer Beater

A classic rivalry moment in a difficult season

As the 1995 season began, Duke seemed to be in a good spot. The Blue Devils had been rolling since 1986 with seven Final Four appearances including three straight appearances in the championship game and back-to-back titles.

The Laettner-Hurley-Hill aura was still bright.

But the talent was down. Mike Krzyzewski would later say that he wasn’t as involved in talent analysis as he had been.

And then there was his back.

Most of you know about how bad his back injury was and that he tried to bull his way through it, but ultimately his wife, Mickie, put her foot down and told him if he didn’t go see a doctor that she was leaving.

Message received, Coach K went to the doctor and ultimately took a leave of absence for the rest of the season to recover and reassess.

Things did not go well in his absence. Duke lost to Clemson in his last game and then dropped six straight before beating Notre Dame, then not an ACC team. A loss to Maryland put the Blue Devils at 10-9 and 0-7 when the #2 Tar Heels came to Cameron.

UNC’s highlight from this game was Jerry Stackhouse dunking over both Erik Meek and Cherokee Parks but the game would go into double overtime and for Duke, the highlight came at the end of the first OT.

Serge Zwikker went to the line and missed a free throw. Parks picked up the rebound and gave it to Jeff Capel, who took off and, just after he crossed half-court, let it go while still running. The ball fell through the basket and into Blue Devil lore.

UNC was clearly the better team and they won in the second overtime, but that moment did a lot for Duke fans. Losing wasn’t great but showing that kind of fight, during that nightmarish season was.

By the way, you should remember this Saturday, because there’s an excellent chance that UNC, in the midst of a difficult season of its own, plays a highly inspired game against the (you guessed it) #2 Blue Devils.

By the way, we forgot to add the links for yesterday’s YouTube Gold about the double buzzer beater in Chapel Hill. They’re included now.