Bubas was the best Duke coach outside Krzyzewski IMO. Found this little gem on YT- Bubas approaching the upcoming season minus the loss of All America prolific shooting guard Bob Verga:
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In the 60s it was Vic Bubas....
- Thread starter hart2chesson
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Agree 100 percent on Bubas.Matter of fact do not wonder if K is is any better than him.Know all of K’s records,but Vic was on an era where you had to win the ACC tournament to go to the NCAA.In his nine years at Duke I can remember two times when we got upset in the tournament when we had the best team.He also did not get any academic exception in recruiting
Great post Topps....Vic was the first to bring big time hoops to Durham. Asst coaches Chuck Daly and Hubie Brown....Amazing staff!
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Have a history of great assistant coachesPrior to them Red Auerbach was here.Always have wondered what would have happened if we hired Daly or Brown instead of Bucky Waters.Without those miserable years we could possibly have most wins in college Basketball history
Bubas was the first CEO type coach.
He was right on about Verga. Verga was really good.
He was right on about Verga. Verga was really good.
Sure enough we let Daly get away to Princeton. His Wildcats came into Durhamnand won by 1 pt. Bucky was out of his league in the ACC...Had some good recruits, but couldnt keep 'em. Transfers killed us...OFC
Verga was better than really good.It is a travesty that his jersey is not in the rafters.Imo the best shooter we have ever had.Took the same shots as JJ without having to use screen and shot 48 percent from the floor.Would have had 2000 points in 80 games if there had been a three point line
Verga was really tough too. I saw him play in the New Jersey shore summer league when he was over 40 and he was still unstoppable!
Would have likely won a natty if he hadnt been sick at a final four. Still, a gutsy competitor he played vs Kentucky and we lost by only 4 in the semi-final. OFC
Agree Latin would not have dominated Mike Lewis nor would have they been able to turn Vacendak and Verga over for easy baskets.Still remember that team kicking UCLA’s butts twice in two days.Johnny Wooden did not come east again until 1974 in the FF against NC State
Good memory Topps- back to back BLUE DEVIL double digit wins on Friday and Saturday nites when UCLA came east to play Duke! OFC
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Listened to those on my transistor radio. First game was in Duke Indoor Stadium. The second game was in old Charlotte Coliseum. I believe Ray Reeve did the radio call.
Thanks for sharing!! So awesome to see pre-Coach K video or games. Really really cool!
I was at the UCLA game in Charlotte and it was the 2nd night. That was a great team with Verga, Lewis, Marin, Riedy and Vacendak, Off the bench was Ron Wendelin, Warren Chapman, Joe Kennedy and Tim Kolodziej even though Kennedy and Kolodziej weren't eligible until 2nd semester. Bubas was a great coach and excellent recruiter getting these guys plus Heyman, Mullins, Randy Dention, Dick DeVenzio and Brad Evans. He also had a gut named Bill Bradley lined up til he showed up at Princeton. I was heartbroken when Bubas retired.
That is why I never liked Bradley.We could have had Fred Hetzel if Bradley hadn’t screwed us
Read that Texas Western players said that they really wanted to play Duke. So they could "mess with them". I guess they were jealous of Duke's academic reputation and media coverage.
I wonder what it would have been like for Duke if Bubas had stayed for another 7 or 8 years. OFC
Very true but had to go through many years of misery til Bill Foster brought us back in 1978.By the reaction of losing a game now many of you would commit sepeku if you had been fans back then
Topps is right...After Bubas the program slowly turned downhill w/Waters, then bottomed out under Neill McGeachy. Finally Bill Foster brought us back in '78...OFC
I guess that's what I was trying to get across if Bubas had hung around until at least the Foster years. We old farts perhaps would not have gone through the years of misery as unc pretty much owned us. Duke fans were either rare or hiding because I felt like a lone duck with all those tar heel fans blasting me. You guys would have been proud of me the way I stood up against the mas majority. OFC
Vic retired from coaching in his prime. He just decided he wanted to step away, and do something else. The Sun Belt Conference was formed and he was announced as their commissioner.
I dont think Vic would have allowed Duke to slip like it did. He was a master organizer. Those were lean times Sky. The NC State-UNC rivalry began to eclipse the Duke-UNC rivalry in basketball as the David Thompson era emerged at State. OFC
I know of what you talk. I lived it to. From the Bubas years when Duke ruled the ACC to the cellar of the ACC. I remember both of those arrogant fan bases back then(UNC&State) when Duke was down. I never wavered in my support.
To this day I still dislike both fan bases particularly the UNC crowd. Hate might be a better word to discribe my feelings toward them.
Amen it was not a good time to live in NC and be a Duke fan especially if you had bad temper and were basically a redneck.
There were a lot of redneck unc fans with bad tempers back then and most of them that are still alive haven't changed. There are just more of them now and they are just as arrogant and entitled as they ever. You guys that live out of the state of N.C. should be very thankful. You have no idea. Reminds me of the day a few years ago when I was trying to find a parking place in a grocery store parking lot. The lot was designed diagonally some the flow of traffic went one way on a row and the opposite way on another. You guys get the picture. I was the lead car in my row with 4 or so cars behind me when I see a car coming in the wrong way looking for a parking place. Of course I had to stop as did the cars behind me along with other cars coming into my row. The first thing I noticed is that it was an expensive car with both a unc license tag on the front and a ram's club membership sticker. The driver was an older woman and I motioned for her to back out so we could all move on as no one was behind her. She got out of her car and said she would not back up because she was looking for a parking place. She said she would not move and we all should back up. I looked at the cars behind me and threw up my hands and I guess they all saw it was a losing cause and we all backed up so she could proceed the wrong way. Still to this day I'm not sure she had no idea of what she was doing or knew exactly what she was doing but one thing for sure is that she was a tar heel fan to the bone. tar heel born and tar heel bred. OFC
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Sky this is SO TRUE. Unless you live in the state you cannot truly have an idea of their fans general attitude of elitist, and media bias.
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Seems like I met most of them which meant that there some incidents that got me in some trouble.Was lucky that did not go to jail over some of them
Oh how many times did we hear the refrain "The Carolina Way" over the years. Funny we don't hear that one anymore.
From what I hear about the UK fans that live in Kentucky you could compare the unc fans living in North Carolina to the UK fans living in Kentucky. You just need to experience it. OFC