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View Full Version : Jeff Mullins is from Lexington??



crote
08-31-2012, 02:46 PM
The video linked on the front page prompted me to read up on Jeff Mullins. Like a lot of people, I'm a little foggy on Duke's pre-K history. Other than the fact that his jersey is retired, and that one year in undergrad I occupied "The Mullins Tent" (#44), I'm sorry to say I didn't know anything about him.

So when I was checking out his Wikipedia page, I was a little surprised to learn that he was a native of Lexington, Kentucky, and was Kentucky's Mr. Basketball in 1960, his senior year. 1960 was the tail end of a dominant decade plus run by Adolph Rupp and the Wildcats that included multiple national titles and consistently strong SEC and NCAA performances. As such, Mullins would seem like a natural fit to play for the Wildcats, yet he ended up at Duke.

Can anybody who knows Duke lore better than I explain how Duke was able to snag the hometown boy away from the team that at the time was the class of college basketball?

jimsumner
08-31-2012, 03:32 PM
The video linked on the front page prompted me to read up on Jeff Mullins. Like a lot of people, I'm a little foggy on Duke's pre-K history. Other than the fact that his jersey is retired, and that one year in undergrad I occupied "The Mullins Tent" (#44), I'm sorry to say I didn't know anything about him.

So when I was checking out his Wikipedia page, I was a little surprised to learn that he was a native of Lexington, Kentucky, and was Kentucky's Mr. Basketball in 1960, his senior year. 1960 was the tail end of a dominant decade plus run by Adolph Rupp and the Wildcats that included multiple national titles and consistently strong SEC and NCAA performances. As such, Mullins would seem like a natural fit to play for the Wildcats, yet he ended up at Duke.

Can anybody who knows Duke lore better than I explain how Duke was able to snag the hometown boy away from the team that at the time was the class of college basketball?

Mullins grew up in Astoria, New York. His father worked for IBM.

His father was transferred to the Lexington area when Jeff was in high school. So, Jeff did not grow up as a UK fan.

Still, Rupp wanted him very badly and even enlisted the governor of Kentucky to aid in his recruitment. FWIW, Mullins told me that he met with the governor and the governor talked mainly about how valuable a UK basketball pedigree would be in Mullins' post-playing career. Nothing under the table.

Mullins had a high-school teammate named Jon Speaks. Speaks was a year ahead of Mullins. Rupp offered Speaks a scholarship. Speaks asked for some time to think about it.

Rupp was furious. No Kentucky kid even thought about turrning down the Wildcats.

So, Rupp withdrew the offer. Words were said.

Mullins was deeply bothered by this treatment of his teammate.

Speaks ended up at NC State. Primarily recruited by Case's top assistant, guy by the name of Bubas. Mullins and Bubas got to know each other during the Speaks recruitment.

The two seemed to get along.

Bubas ends up at Duke and shortly afterwards, so does Mullins.

Seems to have worked out well for all parties concerned.

roywhite
08-31-2012, 04:33 PM
Jeff Mullins is not the only highly rated recruit that Duke was able to snare from Lexington, KY.

Vince Taylor was a HS All-America at Tates Creek HS in Lexington, was recruited by Bill Foster, and also played on Coach K's first two Duke teams.
Vince apparently never felt love for the Wildcats; he has since served on Rick Pitino's staff at Louisville, and now Tubby Smith's staff at Minnesota.

crote
08-31-2012, 05:32 PM
Mullins grew up in Astoria, New York. His father worked for IBM.

His father was transferred to the Lexington area when Jeff was in high school. So, Jeff did not grow up as a UK fan.

Still, Rupp wanted him very badly and even enlisted the governor of Kentucky to aid in his recruitment. FWIW, Mullins told me that he met with the governor and the governor talked mainly about how valuable a UK basketball pedigree would be in Mullins' post-playing career. Nothing under the table.

Mullins had a high-school teammate named Jon Speaks. Speaks was a year ahead of Mullins. Rupp offered Speaks a scholarship. Speaks asked for some time to think about it.

Rupp was furious. No Kentucky kid even thought about turrning down the Wildcats.

So, Rupp withdrew the offer. Words were said.

Mullins was deeply bothered by this treatment of his teammate.

Speaks ended up at NC State. Primarily recruited by Case's top assistant, guy by the name of Bubas. Mullins and Bubas got to know each other during the Speaks recruitment.

The two seemed to get along.

Bubas ends up at Duke and shortly afterwards, so does Mullins.

Seems to have worked out well for all parties concerned.

Interesting. Thanks for the scoop.

jimsumner
08-31-2012, 07:52 PM
Jeff Mullins is not the only highly rated recruit that Duke was able to snare from Lexington, KY.

Vince Taylor was a HS All-America at Tates Creek HS in Lexington, was recruited by Bill Foster, and also played on Coach K's first two Duke teams.
Vince apparently never felt love for the Wildcats; he has since served on Rick Pitino's staff at Louisville, and now Tubby Smith's staff at Minnesota.

Taylor did grow up in Lexington but at a time when UK was not viewed as a congenial place for African Americans.

Now, this had begun to change by the time he hit high school. Rupp had been replaced by Joe B. Hall and Kentucky was bringing in guys like Larry Johnson and Goose Givens (yea, I know).

But the bond just wasn't as strong in those days for black players in Kentucky as it had been for decades for white players.

Still, Kentucky did recruit Taylor. But Vince was a very strong student and Duke's academics appealed to him.

He was Duke's second McDonald's All-America, one year after Banks. He had a great senior season in 1982, unfortunately on arguably the worst team in Duke history. But his senior-day finale was a thing of beauty, a career-high 35 points in a triple-overtime win over Clemson, a game that got Duke to the ten-win threshold that actually seemed to mean something at the time.

Olympic Fan
09-01-2012, 02:20 AM
Taylor did grow up in Lexington but at a time when UK was not viewed as a congenial place for African Americans.

Now, this had begun to change by the time he hit high school. Rupp had been replaced by Joe B. Hall and Kentucky was bringing in guys like Larry Johnson and Goose Givens (yea, I know).

But the bond just wasn't as strong in those days for black players in Kentucky as it had been for decades for white players.

Still, Kentucky did recruit Taylor. But Vince was a very strong student and Duke's academics appealed to him.

He was Duke's second McDonald's All-America, one year after Banks. He had a great senior season in 1982, unfortunately on arguably the worst team in Duke history. But his senior-day finale was a thing of beauty, a career-high 35 points in a triple-overtime win over Clemson, a game that got Duke to the ten-win threshold that actually seemed to mean something at the time.

Jim, while your descruiption of Mullins' recruitment is right on, there is another dimension to Vince Taylor's recruitment.

Kentucky was serving an NCAA penalty that included a scholarship reduction in the spring of 1978 when Taylor came out of Tates Creek High School. Unlike Mullins, Vince DID grow up a UK fan and wanted to play there. But Kentucky had just two scholarships to give that spring and they wanted one to go to power forward Clarence Tillman (a former teammate of Gene Banks at West Philadelphia High). They offered the other to Dwight Anderson, a supposed super from Dayton, Ohio. He was an unbelievable 6-3 athlete.

They tried to get Vince to come as a walk-on (they did the same deal with an Illinois kid named Chuck Verderber) ... promising him a scholarship after a year (when the scholarship restrictions were lifted). He was insulted that that they preferred Anderson. That opened it up for Foster ... although assistant Ray Jones did most of the legwork on that Taylor.

Anderson had a pretty good freshman season, but ran into issues and he left kentucky 11 games into his 1979-80 season. He trasferred Southern Cal, where he made some spectacular plays and averaged right at 20 points a game, but was never anything special. He played one undistinguised season in the NBA.

Vince, of course, played a big role in 1980 when Duke beat Kentucky twice -- including a Sweet 16 victory in Rupp Arena to knock Kentucky out of the 1980 NCAA Tournament. He did have his best season as a senior in 1982, when -- even playing on the last-place ACC team -- he was the No. 4 vote-getter on the first All-ACC team (behind Sampson, Worthy and Perkins, but ahead of Michael Jordan, Adrian Branch, Thurl Bailey and Derek Whittenberg). I remember a poignant moment in the Greensboro Coliseum as Wake Forest demolished Duke 88-53 in the quarterfinals of the tournament -- it was the last game of a long Friday and as the game got into the final minutes, there were just a couple of thousands fans left in the stands and most of them were wake fans. Coach K pulled Vince from the game with a minute or two to go and the crowd -- like I said, mostly Wake fans -- gave him a standing ovation as he exited for the last time. I thought it was a pretty nice tribute to a prtty good player.

roywhite
09-01-2012, 07:33 AM
One of my favorite memories of Vince Taylor's play as a Blue Devil comes from the 1980 ACC Tournament final, a classic where Duke edged Maryland 73-72.

Taylor had 19 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals, including some key late game defensive plays.
Duke 73 -- Maryland 72 boxscore (http://goduke.statsgeek.com/basketball-m/games/boxscore.php?gameid=19800301)

Pretty amazing game overall; Albert King was terrific, scoring 27 in the final and winning the Tournament MVP, but Duke was on a mission that Tournament and was not to be denied. The Devils shot 78.9% from the field (15-19) in the second half to pull it out.

Indoor66
09-01-2012, 08:24 AM
Vince the Prince. A fine memory.

hq2
09-01-2012, 08:36 PM
One of my favorite memories of Vince Taylor's play as a Blue Devil comes from the 1980 ACC Tournament final, a classic where Duke edged Maryland 73-72.

Taylor had 19 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals, including some key late game defensive plays.
Duke 73 -- Maryland 72 boxscore

Pretty amazing game overall; Albert King was terrific, scoring 27 in the final and winning the Tournament MVP, but Duke was on a mission that Tournament and was not to be denied. The Devils shot 78.9% from the field (15-19) in the second half to pull it out.

Last edited by roywhite; Today at 07:41 AM.


Yes, that was a game that was more famous for a certain play at the end between Kenny Dennard and Buck Williams. I remember it well,
but others will gladly fill in the details. It was shall, we say, a happy fall!

jimsumner
09-01-2012, 08:56 PM
His biggest defensive play, IMO, came at the end of the 1980 Duke-Kentucky NCAA Tournament game, when he defended Kyle Macy's potential game-winner. Smothered him. Big-time D.

hq2
09-01-2012, 09:02 PM
His biggest defensive play, IMO, came at the end of the 1980 Duke-Kentucky NCAA Tournament game, when he defended Kyle Macy's potential game-winner. Smothered him. Big-time D.

...which, as I recall, was played in Vince's home town of Lexington!

jimsumner
09-01-2012, 09:05 PM
...which, as I recall, was played in Vince's home town of Lexington!

More importantly, UK's home town.

Good times.