Record: 28-7, 9-5 (3rd place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semfinal
Final AP Ranking: 5
All-ACC Players: Danny Ferry (ACC POY)
All-Americans: Danny Ferry (2nd)
Duke, as everyone knows, went to five consecutive Final Fours in the late 80s / early 90s, culminating with the national championship teams of 1991 and 1992. That run started with this team.
Looking back at those teams, they weren’t as dominant as I remembered. Apart from the 1992 team, none of them was a favorite to reach the Final Four. None was a #1 seed. They were ranked 5th, 9th, 15th, and 6th respectively in the final AP polls.
In light of that, it makes their run that much more impressive. This 1988 team was a good example. They were very good, ranked in the Top 10 all season, but they lost three straight tough road games in late February and wound up third in the ACC standings behind Carolina and NC State. As it happened, those were the very teams that Duke had to face to win the ACC Tournament. The semifinal against NC State, who had swept the regular season matchups, was a nail-biter that came down to some missed free throws in the last few minutes by the Wolfpack and a lob into Charles Shackleford that was mishandled on the last possession.
In the final, the tables were turned in the sense that Duke had swept the Tar Heels in the regular season. The predictable narrative was how hard it is to beat a good team three times (is there any evidence for that, by the way?). It was an ugly, defensive kind of game, as tournament championship games often are, but the Blue Devils held on.
The pivotal moment in the NCAA Tournament was the regional final against Temple. The Owls came into the game with a 32-1 record, ranked #1 in the country, and winners of 18 straight. The Atlantic 10 at the time was what we would think of as a mid-major league. Temple hadn’t played a lot of top teams, but when they had, they fared well: a one-point loss at UNLV, a 12-point win over Villanova, and most impressive of all, a 17-point blowout of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Both teams shot poorly in the first half. Duke trailed 31-25 early in the second half, but over the next 12 minutes or so, Temple went on one of the worst scoring droughts you ever saw. Danny Ferry, Kevin Strickland, and Quin Snyder got it going offensively. By the six-minute mark, the Blue Devils led 50-35, and the game was effectively over. Duke dominated the game defensively, harrying All-American freshman Mark Macon into a dismal 6-29 shooting performance.
In the national semifinal, they ran out of steam. They didn’t shoot well, and they had no answer for Danny Manning, who was on his way to one of the all-time great NCAA Tournament performances.
This wasn’t one of those Duke teams like 1999-2002 or 2019 that had a superabundance of talent all over the floor. Yes, Ferry is an all-time great, and Strickland was a good player who probably should have been second-team All-ACC over Jeff Lebo. Beyond that, Robert Brickey was the only other double-figure scorer, and that just barely. But they had quality supporting players in Snyder, John Smith, Phil Henderson, Alaa Abdelnaby, Greg Koubek, and defensive wizard Billy King. And a pretty good coach.