Record: 27-7, 8-4 (2nd place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national final
Final AP Ranking: 7
All-ACC Players: Jim Spanarkel (1st), Mike Gminski (1st), Gene Banks (2nd)
All-Americans: None
Let’s say you were to take a poll among ACC experts of the most memorable, compelling, dramatic, unexpected postseason runs by ACC teams. 1983 NC State is clearly at the top of that list, but who would finish second? My money would be on 1978 Duke.
It’s hard to imagine now, but coming into the 1978 season, Duke was just another program. They hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since Vic Bubas’ last Final Four team in 1966. The year before, they finished 2-10 in the ACC. They just weren’t on anybody’s radar coming into the season.
The first big sign that this team was different was a mid-January win over second-ranked Carolina. As the rest of the ACC schedule unfolded, it became clear that this was a very good Duke team, certainly the best since the Bubas era. They went undefeated at home. But there were some ugly losses along the way as well. The Blue Devils finished the regular season at 20-6, 8-4 and ranked 15th in the country. Up until the tournament, they were simply a good team having a good year.
The ACC Tournament broke right for them. #1 seed Carolina and #3 seed NC State lost early, so as it happened, Duke faced the three bottom-seeded teams on their way to the title, beating Wake Forest in the championship game.
That got the Blue Devils up to a number eight national ranking going into the NCAA Tournament. This was the last year of the 32-team tournament, and the last year before the seeding system went into effect. Prior to the seeding system, teams went into predetermined slots in the bracket based on conference finish. To be honest, the Blue Devils were placed into a very weak East region. The main threats were Ivy League champion Penn and Big 10 runner-up Indiana. Duke survived two tense games against Rhode Island and Penn, then dominated Villanova to reach the Final Four.
Suddenly the Blue Devils were starting to look like a team of destiny. In the national semifinal, they faced a Notre Dame team that had been ranked in the Top 10 all season and featured future NBA standouts Kelly Tripucka and Bill Laimbeer. That game was what really cemented the reputation of this team. The big three combined for 71 points on 25-for-43 from the field and 21-for-23 from the line, Gminski and Banks dominated the paint, and the Blue Devils withstood a furious second-half comeback to escape with a four-point win to advance to the national championship game. Unfortunately the fairy tale ended there. Kentucky’s Goose Givens went off, scoring 41 points, and it was too much for Duke to overcome.
Where do they rank among the great teams in ACC history? This team has received a tremendous amount of attention over the years. Part of that is due to John Feinstein’s book Forever’s Team. Part of it may be due to the fact that Spanarkel and Gminski have remained prominent and public figures in college basketball. And part of it, let’s be honest, is the fact that it’s Duke. Because I’ve heard so much about this team over the years, I started out thinking they would be possibly Top 25.
Well, they aren’t. The more I look at this team, the more I think the attention they have received over the years is somewhat out of proportion with their actual accomplishments. Is that unfair? I mean, they did win the ACC Tournament and advance to the national final. But take a step back and look at the actual record. Based on regular season alone, this team would not be one of the 100 best teams in ACC history. They went 8-4 in the ACC and they were ranked 15th in the country going into the ACC Tournament. A good year, to be sure, but hardly special or memorable by ACC standards.
What happened next is they took advantage of an unusually weak set of opponents over the next three weeks. The only good team they beat on their way to the national championship game was #6 Notre Dame.
I know you can only play who’s on the schedule, and I know that just because you’re favored doesn’t mean these games are easy to win, and I know they played an incredible game against Notre Dame to get to the final. I’m just saying, that run isn’t quite as special as I once thought. Contrasted to other teams that made similar runs – 1981 North Carolina, or 2016 North Carolina, or even 2004 Georgia Tech, for Pete’s sake – this team had an easier time of it.