Record: 27-3, 14-0 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 2
All-ACC Players: Art Heyman (ACC POY), Jeff Mullins (1st)
All-Americans: Art Heyman (National POY)
1963 marked the arrival of Vic Bubas and Duke on the national scene. Bubas had been steadily building up the program since his arrival in 1959:
- 1959-60: 17-11, 7-7, ranked 18th
- 1960-61: 22-6, 10-4, Art Heyman‘s debut, ranked 10th
- 1961-62: 20-5, 11-3, Jeff Mullins‘ debut, ranked 10th
Going into 1962-63, Heyman and Mullins were both back from the prior year’s team. The Blue Devils were ranked second in the preseason poll. It seemed like their year to do something special.
Duke dropped to number eight in the polls after late December losses to Lefty Driesell-coached Davidson and Rick Barry-led Miami. They didn’t lose again until the Final Four. Following a win over Bill Bradley and Princeton, the Blue Devils proceeded to rip through the ACC regular season, becoming only the second team (North Carolina 1957) to be undefeated in ACC play. To give you an idea of the distance between Duke and the rest of the league, the second place team was Wake Forest. Duke beat the Deacs four times by an average of 20 points.
The Devils breezed through the ACC Tournament without a close game. With only 25 teams in the NCAA Tournament at the time, Duke received a first-round bye and advanced to the regional semifinal against #9 NYU. After a hard-fought win over the Violets, Duke faced St. Joseph’s in the regional final. Behind 24 from Mullins and 20 from Fred Schmidt, the Blue Devils survived an off night from Heyman and pulled away in the second half for a 73-59 win and their first Final Four.
That was the end of their run. In the Final Four, Duke ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Loyola (Ill.). The Ramblers took it to the Blue Devils, pulling away late for a 94-75 victory. Loyola went on to dethrone the two-time defending national champion Cincinnati Bearcats to win the title. Duke won the third place game against Oregon State handily, Heyman setting the pace with 22 in his last college game.
Duke shot 51.1% from the field for the year, shattering the previous ACC record of 47.3% by Duke 1961. It would remain the high until the 1966 North Carolina Tar Heels became the second ACC team to shoot better than 50% for a season at 51.7%. These were the only two teams to shoot 50% or better until the 1970s, when it became commonplace.