LEXINGTON — It is possible to live a lifetime in a few seconds. Dane Fife lived, died and was born again Thursday night at Rupp Arena. All it took was 4.2 ticks of a clock.

        Let's see if we can recap. A.J. Moye makes two free throws with 11.1 seconds to play and Indiana leads Duke 74-70. The Blue Devils hurry down the court. Daniel Ewing bombs a 3-pointer from the right wing. It misses.

        The ball caroms to the free throw line, where Duke's Jason Williams grabs it, steps behind the arc, shoots the 3, makes it and ...

        Dane Fife fouls him.

        Williams is a great player. He's even money to be national player of the year. But not even Jason Williams can make a four-point field goal.

        Down to one shot

        With 4.2 seconds to play, he goes to the line, dribbles once, twice, three times. Rupp Arena sounds like the running of the bulls. Normally, the 22,848 mostly blue-necks in attendance would rather root for Iraq than for Indiana. This isn't normally. This is Duke, home office for UK dream-busting, the four-year layover for Christian Laettner, the Devil himself. A patchy sea of blue shirts has been chanting “IU! IU!” all night.

        Jason Williams toes the free throw line. Indiana coach Mike Davis turns, kneels, buries his face in a bench seat.

        Dane Fife grabs his shorts and looks down.

        Williams puts up the free throw.

        Have you been to a county fair? On the midway, they always have a game. For $1, you get three softballs and you to try to toss them into a milk bottle. The balls are barely smaller than the opening of the bottle, so almost always, the ball bounces, bounces, bounces and falls away.

        Jason Williams' free throw was like that.

        Duke's Carlos Boozer grabbed the rebound, went up strong. Was he fouled? Maybe. Could have been. But no referee is going to make that call, in that situation, not unless Boozer has an arm amputated by a hack.

        Boozer missed the follow, Indiana had the win, Dane Fife could breathe again, and the Kentucky fans were going crazy with joy for the Hoosiers.

        Madness is bliss

Duke's Jason Williams reacts after Duke lost to Indiana. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

       What an event.

        Don't you love it?

        The tournament selection committee does. The committee loves this sort of side-dish intrigue. IU-Duke at Rupp Arena was no accident. It's possible to orchestrate the Madness.

        It was a neutral court in theory. The theory was blown as soon as Duke showed up. The Blue Devils, in Lexington? They were booed when they worked out Wednesday. They were booed when they stepped on the floor before the game. Their cheerleaders were booed.

        The refs were booed whenever they called a foul on Indiana, even as Duke was racking up fouls in the second half like Minnesota Fats racked up 9-balls.

        The Big Boo. It was the first (and probably last) time IU will have home-court advantage at Rupp Arena.

        “I'd like to thank all the Kentucky fans,” Davis said afterward. “I hope they show up again Saturday.

        They will, but it won't be to root against Duke. They'll be booing again, just as hard. Against the Hoosiers.

        Contact Paul Daugherty at 768-8454; pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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