Duke rally brings back reminders of historic LSU, Tulane blown leads

Duke made what is being described as a “comeback for the ages” Wednesday night at Louisville, rallying from a 23-point deficit in the final nine minutes to win 71-69.

Perhaps it was a nice coincidence that the Blue Devils-Cardinals matchup was the second half of an ESPN doubleheader, following another top-20 matchup just down the road between LSU and Kentucky.

That’s because when you start thinking about comebacks, one of the games at the top of the list is Kentucky at LSU in 1994.

While the final hours of Mardi Gras were winding down elsewhere in southeast Louisiana, Rick Pitino’s Wildcats came back from a 31-point deficit in the final 15 minutes to stun the Tigers, 99-95.

On that night, LSU led 48-32 at halftime and went on an 18-0 run early in the second half to stretch the lead to 68-37.

A barrage of Kentucky three-pointers and LSU missed free throws played a part in the Wildcat comeback. Another factor: The timeout rules were different then. In a televised game, not only did teams have only three timeouts, but any called time out took the place of a later media timeout.

By the 12-minute mark of the second half, there were no more media timeouts scheduled and each team had just one timeout remaining. Simply put, when Kentucky got rolling, there was little Dale Brown could do to stop the Wildcats’ momentum.

That win, of course, sent writers, broadcasters and researchers to the record books. What was the greatest comeback in college basketball? Turns out, another Louisiana school had blown the lead – Tulane, against … wait for it … Duke, all the way back in 1950.

On that night in Raleigh, North Carolina – the game was part of a holiday tournament called the Dixie Classic featuring Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest and four other schools – Tulane led by 32 points in the first half, 29 points at halftime and 31 points early in the second half. Still, Duke rallied to win 74-72.

Records on such comebacks are way more detailed now than they were a quarter-century ago. The NCAA record books now breaks down comebacks for any point in the game, halftime score, in the second half, in the last five minutes and in the last minute.

Back then, the only thing listed in the NCAA records for the Tulane-Duke game was the 29-point halftime margin. So, as it turned out, Kentucky-LSU had not topped the record.

A year ago this month, however, Tulane and LSU were mercifully shoved down a notch when Drexel came back from a 34-point deficit to defeat Delaware.

Drexel’s biggest deficit was in the first half, however – they “only” trailed by 29 in the second half, so in terms of second-half comebacks, Duke-Tulane and Kentucky-LSU still sit atop the list.

While LSU fans are certainly feeling pretty good about anything involving Kentucky after Tuesday night’s last-second win at Rupp Arena, there’s this – Friday marks the 25-year anniversary of what became known as the “Mardi Gras Miracle” in bluegrass country. Kentucky fans can set their DVRs for early Friday morning if they want to watch it again, as the SEC Network will re-air the game at 2:30 a.m. CST.