Forty Minutes To Glory

Five hours later Kentucky is back in the arena and deadly serious as it huddles in its locker room, waiting for Duke to fight off a late Notre Dame rally and win the first of the semifinals. The players mark time by passing around the game ball. Macy stretches his stiff knee. Trainer Walt McCombs completes his pregame chores by dousing a towel with something called Florida Water, an aromatic substance that is used to freshen up players during time-outs. Hall walks in and calmly begins tearing apart the game program, whittling it down to manageable thickness. As always, he will carry it like a relay runner's baton throughout the game.

After 20 minutes of play, Hall is not so restrained. After falling behind 12-8, Kentucky takes a 24-18 lead, rattling Arkansas with a tenacious man-to-man defense that denies passes everywhere but out of bounds. However, Hall is angry because in the closing moments of the half the Cats frittered away all but two points of their lead.

His face red, Hall tears off his coat and berates Claytor and Phillips. "All you got to do is go out there with some guts and play!" he shouts. "We haven't got a guard who can get the ball inside."

"I'm open, Coach," interjects Lee.

"I know it, James," says Hall. "But I don't have a guard who can get it to you. They throw it to Arkansas, and Arkansas goes down and shoots layups. I just by Gawd wonder what some of you are doin'. Shoot, Truman. I don't know. Can you play? Can you open your eyes? Can you do something?"

"Yes, sir," says Claytor, his brow furrowed contritely.

Kentucky controls the second half. Its lead is six after four minutes, eight after six minutes and 54-45 with a little less than nine minutes left. The Wildcats win 64-59.

In the locker room, Hall asks the players if they want to have dinner and see a movie later in the evening.

"How about if we watch a tape of the Duke-Notre Dame game?" asks Robey.

"Yeah, let's watch Duke," other players chime in. Kentucky is here to win. When the writers enter the dressing room, they are struck by the fact that the players are not celebrating.