Month: May 2024

Record: 32-4, 15-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in final
NCAA Tournament: Lost in Elite 8
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Roshown McLeod (1st), Trajan Langdon (1st), Steve Wojciechowski (3rd)
All-Americans: None

The 1995 season was a disaster for the Duke program. The narrative is well known. Coach K had back surgery, tried to come back too soon, and had to be shut down for the season. The team was turned over to Pete Gaudet. Unfortunately for his reputation, they fell apart, finishing last in the ACC regular season.

We’ll never know what their record would have been had K been healthy, but make no mistake: this team wasn’t very good. This was not a Top 10 team that Pete Gaudet ran into the ground. Our memories tend to craft narratives that are tidier than reality, and a common one about this team is that 1995 was a one-year aberration. Not exactly. The 1996 team was 18-13, 8-8 and lost to Eastern Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. There were real problems in the program, and some rebuilding was in order. Give Coach K credit for recognizing this. I’m sure it would have been easy to tell himself that his return would solve everything. But he understood that the program had slipped since the Laettner/Hurley/Hill days. They had to look at the kids they were recruiting.

So starting in 1997, and for the next several years, he went on one of the great multiyear recruiting runs in college basketball history. Let’s take a look at the major recruits and transfers during that period and classify them as All-American, All-ACC, major contributor, or non-impact players or transfers.

Year	All-American	All-ACC	Major Contributor	Non-Impact/Transfer
1997	Chris Carrawell	Roshown McLeod Nate James		Mike Chappell
1998	Elton Brand Shane Battier	William Avery		Chris Burgess
1999			Corey Maggette
2000	Jason Williams Mike Dunleavy	Carlos Boozer		Casey Sanders Nick Horvath
2001		Chris Duhon		Andre Sweet
2002		Dahntay Jones Daniel Ewing
2003	JJ Redick Shelden Williams		Shavlik Randolph Sean Dockery	Michael Thompson
2004			Luol Deng

So in this stretch, K signed 24 big-time players. A full 14 of those players – 58% – were All-ACC players. Seven (29%) were All-Americans. Two others, Maggette and Deng, were one-and-done players who almost certainly would have reached All-ACC level had they stayed. So basically over an eight-year period, 2/3 of the players K brought in were All-ACC level players. He was bringing in an average of one All-American and one other All-ACC caliber player per year.

Don’t you wish your coach could do that?

In terms of sheer volume of really good players, it may not equal late 2010s Duke, when K was reloading his team with a handful of elite one-and-done guys every year; but in the context of the time, that’s about as good a recruiting stretch as anybody ever had.

Now, to bring it back to 1998. The 1997 team had been very good, but you get the sense that the hangover from 1995 had not worn off completely. Jeff Capel and Greg Newton were still around, and they were (perhaps to an unfair degree) strongly associated with 1995’s failure. Despite winning the ACC regular season, it was somehow unsurprising when the Blue Devils fell to 4-12 NC State in the first round of the ACC Tournament and were upset by Providence in the second round of the NCAAs. It would be left to the 1998 team to finish the task of restoring Duke to the top of the college basketball world.

Notice was served in the Maui Classic when the Blue Devils toppled #1 Arizona and usurped that ranking for themselves. This was a team that could absolutely bury you. They beat Virginia by 44, Villanova by 28, Maryland (which was ranked) by 32 and 27, Wake by 36 and 31, #12 UCLA by 36.

One team they didn’t bury was Carolina. In fact, they got buried over in Chapel Hill, 97-73, and suffered a similar if less embarrassing fate in the ACC Tournament final. Of course, that 1998 Carolina team with Jamison and Carter was itself a great team that would go on to make the Final Four.

Duke got a tough draw in the NCAA Tournament with eventual champion Kentucky being in their region. The Wildcats were the strongest of the #2 seeds and had a good argument for a #1 seed themselves. They had nearly won the national championship the previous year and had breezed through the 1998 SEC. The game was a classic. Duke led by 17 with 9:30 to go, but sparked by a flurry of threes and a flagrant foul on McLeod, Kentucky stormed back and pulled out an 86-84 victory.

Though they didn’t win the ACC Tournament or reach the Final Four, this was the team that erased any lingering memories from Duke’s mid-1990s mediocrity and re-established them as one of college basketball’s elite programs.

Record: 36-3, 14-2 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 1
All-ACC Players: Tyler Hansbrough (ACC POY), Wayne Ellington (2nd)
All-Americans: Tyler Hansbrough (National POY)

This was the forerunner to the 2009 national championship team. In fact, the core of that team – Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Danny Green, and Deon Thompson – were together for three seasons from 2007-2009. All three teams were ranked in the Top 5 and each could have won the national championship. The 2007 team, despite its youth, had a tremendous year, winning the ACC regular season and tournament and reaching a regional final. Despite the one-and-done departure of freshman Brandan Wright, expectations were sky high for the 2008 team.

They opened with 18 consecutive wins and stormed to a 32-2 record, ACC regular season and tournament titles, and a #1 national ranking. The offense was overwhelming. The Tar Heels were the best offensive rebounding team in the country, bar none. They made free throws a huge competitive advantage, leading the nation in free throws made. Hansbrough, Ellington, Green, and Lawson all shot over 80%. They led the nation in two-point field goals made and led the ACC in two-point FG%. Like many of Roy Williams’ teams, they didn’t shoot many threes, but when they did, they shot them well. They were the most efficient offense in the country according to kenpom.

There were some minor vulnerabilities lurking. They were a good defensive team, but not a great one. They gave up 80+ points an awful lot for a great team. On the interior, they lacked a real shot-blocker (this is where Wright would have come in handy), and Hansbrough was never a great defender.

It was also an unusually easy schedule for a Carolina team. They scheduled Ohio State and Kentucky on the road, which sounds tough, but those programs were having down years. Their toughest nonconference game was probably the opener at Davidson with Steph Curry. The ACC was a bit down that year; after Carolina and Duke, Clemson was pretty good, and that was about it. Carolina was the only ACC team to make it to the Sweet 16 that year. So the gaudy record was a little bit deceiving. They weren’t quite as battle-tested as you might expect a 32-2 ACC team to be.

But nitpicking aside, this team was clearly a strong contender to win the national championship. They cruised through the East region without much of a challenge, setting up a showdown with fourth-ranked Kansas in the Final Four. What followed was one of the strangest games I can ever remember watching. Kansas got out to a shocking 40-12 lead in the first half. Carolina cut the lead to all the way to five with eight minutes left, and Danny Green had a good look at a three that rimmed out that would’ve cut it to two. From that point, Kansas dominated the last eight minutes and won going away.

But it doesn’t take away from a tremendous year for this group. 36-3, ACC champions, made the Final Four, stopped only by the best team in the country and eventual champion. And with no seniors and no underclassmen leaving early, it set them up perfectly for what was to come in 2009.

Record: 31-3, 17-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in round of 64
Final AP Ranking: 1
All-ACC Players: Kyle Guy (1st), Devon Hall (2nd), Ty Jerome (3rd)
All-Americans: None

We may as well begin by acknowledging the elephant in the room. There is no consideration of 2018 Virginia that does not begin with their historic loss to UMBC. That is what most people will remember about this team: one game that overshadows everything else they accomplished. There has never been a game like that game, and perhaps there never will be. For a team like UMBC to score 53 points in the second half against the best defensive team in the country, in a game when they had everything to play for… I don’t typically look for psychological explanations for sporting events, but I don’t think this is explainable otherwise.

Even the psychological explanation is problematic. Typically when I think of sports psychology in basketball, I think of shooting under pressure. Perhaps we can all understand a poor shooting performance in a high pressure situation. But how do you explain a complete defensive breakdown in a high pressure situation? And don’t tell me it’s because De’Andre Hunter was out. I know he was an excellent player, and it hurt them, but he played only 20 minutes per game that year. They were still playing great defense when he wasn’t on the floor.

I can’t explain that game. But I do know that before that game, Virginia went 31-2. I know they played 21 games against ACC competition and won 20 of them. That record is simply too good to leave off this list.

There’s been a lot said over the years regarding Virginia’s style of play and whether it hurts them in March. It’s not just Virginia; a team’s style of play and how that affects their postseason prospects is a frequent topic of debate for sports pundits. You’ll notice that no two authorities ever seem to agree in their assessment of what particular style of play leads to postseason success. Defense wins championships, offense wins championships, the Yankees are too reliant on the home run, etc. These debates tend to be long on unsubstantiated assertions and conjecture, and short on facts.

In general, I think this kind of argument is a lot of hooey. The game is the game, and it doesn’t suddenly become a different game after the regular season. There is no particular style of play that works in the postseason.

However, there is some evidence that balanced teams tend to overperform in the postseason, and by extension, unbalanced teams tend to underperform. Balanced in this context means balanced between offense and defense. 2018 Virginia was relatively unbalanced. Kenpom had them ranked #1 in defensive efficiency and #30 in offensive efficiency.

So I don’t buy that Virginia’s style “doesn’t work in the postseason”. They won the national championship the next year with the exact same style. The difference is, the 2019 team was just better offensively and therefore was better balanced. Balanced teams are harder to game plan for, better able to compensate when something isn’t working, and therefore harder to upset.

Record: 28-5, 9-3 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national final
Final AP Ranking: 5
All-ACC Players: Phil Ford (1st), Walter Davis (1st), Tom LaGarde (2nd)
All-Americans: Phil Ford (1st)

This team is often remembered for what might have been, but what they did accomplish was impressive enough. In case you’re unfamiliar with the details, All-ACC center Tom LaGarde injured a knee in mid-February and missed the rest of the season. Sweet-shooting Walter Davis broke his finger in the ACC Tournament against NC State. He was able to come back and play, but the injury may have hampered his effectiveness. And All-American guard Phil Ford hyperextended his elbow in the round of 16 win over Notre Dame and did not seem to be himself after that. In spite of all that adversity, the Tar Heels advanced to the national championship game before losing to Marquette.

It’s an interesting narrative, but the funny part is, Carolina won all those games, except the last one. From the time that LaGarde got hurt, they won twelve in a row. So if you’re lamenting what might’ve been, the only thing there is to lament is the national championship game. Would the Tar Heels have won it with a healthy group? I have no idea. I do think they were a better team at full strength than Marquette, but the better team doesn’t always win.

If you look at the game as it was actually played, Walter Davis played well. It’s not obvious from his stat line that he was hampered in any way. Ford, though, did not play well after the injury, and it seems likely that he was affected. The other thing this game is remembered for is Dean’s decision to go to the Four Corners midway through the second half with only a slim lead. They had used the same tactic to good effect in prior games, but this time it didn’t work. Marquette regained the lead and salted it away from the line in the last few minutes, going 23-for-25 for the game.

The attention on what might’ve been shouldn’t detract from the tremendous run this team made. In succession, they beat a really good Purdue team, #10 Notre Dame, #3 Kentucky, and #4 UNLV. The Tar Heels trailed at half in three of those four games. Davis, freshman Mike O’Koren, and senior guard John Kuester played extremely well. Ford gutted it out in spite of his elbow, and Rich Yonakor filled in admirably for LaGarde.

From the Weird Scheduling Department: Carolina’s last regular season game was a non-conference game on Sunday against #10 Louisville. Not only is it odd to have a non-conference opponent for your last regular season game and Senior Day, but they played at Duke just the day before. Why in the world would you schedule games on back-to-back days like that to finish the season? There must be a story behind that. In any case, it didn’t bother the Tar Heels, who ran away from Louisville in a game that wasn’t as close as the 96-89 score indicated.

Record: 26-4, 12-2 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 2
All-ACC Players: Bob Verga (1st), Jack Marin (1st), Steve Vacendak (2nd, ACC POY)
All-Americans: Bob Verga (2nd), Jack Marin (2nd)

After a hiatus of a couple of months, I’m ready to restart my countdown of the 50 greatest ACC teams ever. We continue the series with the 1966 Duke team.

Duke’s teams from 1962-1966 represent arguably the best five-year run in league history. I wrote about this previously in my Jack Marin post. If pressed, I would probably give the edge to Duke 1998-2002, but it’s close.

After reaching the Final Four in 1963 and 1964, Duke’s 1965 team had dipped just a bit. They still won the ACC regular season and were ranked in the Top 10 all year, but they were beaten by NC State in the ACC Tournament final and did not get the opportunity to make another Final Four run. But Verga, Marin, and Vacendak were all underclassmen. With the addition of big man Mike Lewis, it set the Blue Devils up for success in 1966.

After an early loss at #10 South Carolina, the Blue Devils faced defending national champion and top-ranked UCLA twice on back-to-back nights. Duke whipped the Bruins in both games and promptly jumped to #1 in the polls where they stayed for most of the season.

They dropped only two more games the rest of the way, finishing with a full three-game lead over second-place NC State. In the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils put up 103 points in an opening round blowout of Wake Forest. In the semis, they edged North Carolina in the infamous 21-20 slowdown game. In the final, Duke topped NC State for their third ACC title in four years and avenged their loss to the Wolfpack from the year before.

In the regionals, the Blue Devils defeated fifth-ranked St. Joe’s and a Syracuse team featuring Dave Bing and Jim Boeheim to advance to the Final Four, where #1 Kentucky awaited. In a tight, tense game that wasn’t decided until the end, the Wildcats prevailed 83-79. Unfortunately for Duke, Bob Verga was suffering from the flu (or strep throat, depending on whom you ask) and scored only four points. Kentucky went on to fall to Texas Western in that classic 1966 final that is remembered for its racial and civil rights implications as much as for the action on the court. Had Verga not come down with something, it might have been Duke (who was just as white as Kentucky) playing in that game.

An interesting fact is that Steve Vacendak was the ACC Player of the Year in 1966 despite making only second-team All-ACC. At the time, the All-ACC vote was taken before the ACC Tournament, the ACC POY vote after. Vacendak’s tournament performance made such an impression on the voters that they voted him Player of the Year.

Bubas’ teams consistently had tremendous size and dominated the glass. The 1963 and 1964 teams started two 6’10” guys, which was pretty much unheard of in that era. The 1966 team was not quite so big, but Marin was an excellent rebounder at 6’6″ and Lewis is one of the best rebounders in league history. The net of it was a rebounding margin of +12.8.

Lowest ACC Tournament Scoring Averages for Winners of Everett Case Award (Tournament MOP):

• Steve Vacendak, Duke, 1966 – 10.0
• Dudley Bradley, North Carolina, 1979 – 12.5
• James Worthy, North Carolina, 1982 – 13.3
• John Kuester, North Carolina, 1977 – 13.5
• Lou Pucillo, NC State, 1959 – 13.7