2003 Top 50 List: No
Dan Collins List: Yes
Do you know about the 1960s Duke program? Because if you’re an ACC fan, you should. We all know about the great teams of Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski, and even Roy Williams and Tony Bennett, but what about the great teams of Vic Bubas?
I suppose the main reason we don’t hear as much about 1960s Duke is that they didn’t win a national championship. OK; but they did everything you can do in a program short of that. Art Heyman is the best-known player, and with good reason, but they had lots of really good players. Jeff Mullins, Bob Verga, Steve Vacendak, Jack Marin, and Mike Lewis (#90 on my list) are the most notable.
Marin, Verga, and Vacendak were the core of the 1965 and 1966 teams. The 1965 team averaged 92.4 points per game, third in ACC history behind 1973 NC State (92.9) and 1975 NC State (92.7). They beat Virginia 136-72, and in case you’re wondering, that game does hold the record for most points against an ACC opponent and largest margin of victory over an ACC opponent. Looking at the box score for that game, obviously there are a lot of eye-popping numbers, but the thing that struck me was, every player on Duke’s roster, all 14 of them, scored. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Can you think of a basketball game in which 14 different players scored?
In Marin’s three years (1964-66), the Blue Devils won the ACC regular season each year, won the tournament twice, and went to two Final Fours. Marin was named first team All-ACC in 1965 and 1966 and was runner up to Vacendak in ACC Player of the Year voting in 1966 (I’ll have more to write about this in a future post). Marin was named second team All-America as well. He went on to have a fine NBA career, scoring over 12,000 career points and twice making the All-Star team.
As I was looking at the 1960s Duke teams, it got me thinking about the greatest programs in ACC history. By program, I mean going beyond a one or two-year period where you can win with the same group of players. I decided to look at five-year stretches. Five years is long enough that you have to have at least two different core groups of players and maybe three. So what was the greatest five-year stretch in ACC history?
To study this, I looked at all ACC programs which either:
- Won 80% or more of ACC games over a 5-year period, or
- Made 3 or more Final Fours over a 5-year period
When there was a team that had multiple 5-year stretches in a 7- or 8-year period, I tried to pick the best 5-year stretch within that. I made an exception for UNC 1983-1987; their ACC record was so good, I included them even though I already had UNC 1981-1985.
Best 5-Year Stretches, listed in order of ACC Winning %:
| Team | Overall W-L | ACC W-L | AP Poll Finishes | ACC Reg. Season Finishes | ACC Tourney Titles | Final Fours | Nat’l Champs |
| Duke 1998-2002 | 164-19 (.896) | 72-8 (.900) | 3/1/1/1/1 | 1/1/1/1t/2 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Duke 1962-1966 | 119-22 (.844) | 61-9 (.871) | 10/2/3/10/2 | 2/1/1/1/1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| UNC 1957-1961 | 108-22 (.831) | 60-10 (.857) | 1/13/9/UR/5 | 1/2t/1t/1t/1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| UNC 1983-1987 | 143-30 (.827) | 59-11 (.843) | 8/1/7/8/2 | 1t/1/1t/3/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UNC 1981-1985 | 144-30 (.828) | 57-13 (.814) | 6/1/8/1/7 | 2/1t/1t/1/1t | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Virginia 2015-2019 | 148-29 (.836) | 73-17 (.811) | 6/4/24/1/2 | 1/2/5t/1/1t | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| UNC 2005-2009 | 157-26 (.858) | 64-16 (.800) | 2/10/4/1/2 | 1/2/1t/1/1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| UNC 1967-1971 | 125-30 (.806) | 56-14 (.800) | 4/4/4/UR/13 | 1/1/1/2/1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Duke 1990-1994 | 147-32 (.821) | 56-20 (.737) | 15/6/1/10/6 | 2/1/1/3t/1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
This is an interesting list on several levels, but getting back to the Vic Bubas Blue Devils, I think it shows that their record stacks up pretty well against anybody.
Here are the best 5-year stretches for other programs that have been in the league long enough for that to be an interesting question:
| Team | Overall W-L | ACC W-L | AP Poll Finishes | ACC Reg. Season Finishes | ACC Tourney Titles | Final Fours | Nat’l Champs |
| NC State 1972-76 | 116-26 (.817) | 45-15 (.750) | UR/2/1/7/UR | 4t/1/1/2t/2t | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Clemson 2008-12 | 106-57 (.650) | 45-35 (.563) | 22/24/UR/UR/UR | 3/5t/5t/4t/7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FSU 2017-21 | 122-41 (.748) | 61-28 (.685) | 16/UR/10/4/14 | 2t/8t/4/1/2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maryland 1999-03 | 131-41 (.762) | 60-20 (.750) | 5/17/11/4/17 | 2/2/3/1/2t | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Wake 1960-1964 | 94-48 (.662) | 55-15 (.786) | 19/UR/UR/UR/UR | 1t/2/1/2/2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| GT 1985-89 | 112-50 (.691) | 43-27 (.614) | 6/6/UR/UR/UR | 1t/2/5/4/5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Vic Bubas has the best ACC record of any coach in conference history. In ACC regular season games, he was 106-32 (.768). In ACC Tournament games, he was 22-6 (.786). Both of those winning percentages are better than every other ACC coach; better than Case and McGuire, better than Coach K or Dean, better than Roy Williams, Gary Williams, Lefty, or Tony Bennett. It’s fair to say the depth of competition in the ACC of the 1960s was not as good as it would be it later years, but Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest did combine for seven Final 4 appearances in the decade. And this was when only one school per conference was allowed into the NCAA Tournament. So the ACC wasn’t exactly the sisters of the poor. Anytime you’re winning 77% of your games against your primary competition, you must be doing something right.
Jake mentioned that Bubas never won a national title. I think another reason people don’t remember Bubas as the great coach that he was is that he was a head coach for only 10 seasons. He retired from coaching after the 1969 season when he was only 42 years old. Imagine a successful coach in any sport today “retiring” at 42. We’d all think he’s going to be on ESPN for a year or two and then he’ll be back on the sidelines. But Bubas never came back. He worked in the administration at Duke and was later the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference until he really retired in 1990. I was lucky to meet him once and he was very nice to talk to me for a few minutes about the good old days of ACC Basketball.