My look at one of Bubas' best weekends.

[jimsumner]

For those of you who don't read the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...indoor-stadium

[DoubleBlue]

For those of you who don't read the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...indoor-stadium

Thanks for the link, Jim. Could there be a thread in the Forum for front page stories? I do enjoy reading them.

[Indoor66]

For those of you who don't read the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...indoor-stadium

Thanks Jim. That was a fun weekend.

[Jedweb]

Indeed, it was a great weekend. I was fortunate enough to attend both games - one of the best times I ever spent in Charlotte. We all looked forward to the Sports Illustrated write up of the games, and my recollection is that the story line was something on the order of There was Blood on the Carolina Moon. i recall how my friends and I were shocked at the allegations of racial slurs. We had not heard any, and were really disappointed at the prospect that they might have been true. I have not researched, and my memory may be playing tricks, but it may have been that those accusations were contained in an editorial in the same SI issue rather than in the story proper. As good as it was, it made the 1966 Final Four loss to Kentucky even more difficult to take. In the 1964 title game, NOBODY who was a student at Duke doubted that we would be UCLA. Who the hell was John Wooden. Plus, UCLA's tallest players were 6'6" and Duke had Buckley and Tison, each 6'10". Plus, did they even play basketball in California, for Pete's sake? I knew a couple of the 1966 players pretty well. There was simply no way, i thought, that they would have overlooked Texas Western by being overconfident in the finals game, Duke having had its lunch handed to it unexpectedly by UCLA two years earlier. To this day, there is no way in the world that i can be convinced that Bubas and company would not have won the title in 1966 had Bob Verga been healthy. Sic transit gloria mundi, etc.

[Edouble]

Thanks for the link, Jim. Could there be a thread in the Forum for front page stories? I do enjoy reading them.

Here ya go, started a new thread for you:

https://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php-Front-Page-Stories

[budwom]

IIRC, it's a good thing UCLA couldn't play their freshmen, because that was the year Lew (Kareem) et al were battering the varsity in practices.

[hallcity]

I wasn't at those games but I certainly remember them. I think I listened to them on the radio. The ACC was syndicating a game of the week on TV back then but the UCLA games weren't on TV, were they?

It must be hard for younger people to believe that there was a time when only one college basketball game was available to watch on TV each week.

[Rogue]

I have no proof of this, but it was rumored that John Wooden said he’d never play in NC again after the two losses. The fans were too wonderful, huge home court advantage. If it’s true, then UCLA , didn’t play in NC again till they played NC State in the simi finals in Greensboro.

There was a TV show that was popular , called The Man From U.N.C.L.E. One of the sporting magazines of the day, had Duke on the cover , Headlined with More Devilry from the men from D.U.K.E. . I was 14 and loved it.
Like many, I just knew , had Verga not been sick with ?? strep throat, Duke could have won it all.

I think that the 1966 ACC tournament was the first time I’d seen Dean Smith use his slow down tactics. I think it was the simi finals and Duke went on to beat unc 21-20, with Mike Lewis hit 2 free throws for the win.

The ‘66 team was my favorite. They’d beat UCLA , Michigan’s Cazzie Russell, and I think they beat Syracuse and Dave Bing in the East Regionals. It was not formatted as we know it today. The ACC champion got a first round bye, while teams like Davidson, St. John’s etc had to play a game .

Loved those days

[TruBlu]

I think I’ve posted this in another thread years ago, but the game in Charlotte was my first ever being at a Duke basketball game. I was a teenager, and got 2 tickets. Took my dad to his first ever Duke game. He was a lifelong Duke fan who got me hooked on being a Duke fan as a defense mechanism because he would be in a bad mood for days after a Duke loss. Our seats were about 5 rows behind one of the baskets. I enjoyed the game, but I was also very concerned about my dad’s health during the game. I think he might have been the most excited and exuberant fan in attendance. Good memories.

[jimsumner]

RE: 1964. College basketball was much more regional in those days and the national media was based in the east. But UCLA was undefeated and San Francisco (with Bill Russell) had won the NCAA title in 1955 and 1956 and Cal had won it in 1959. So, there should have been no doubt that west coast schools could play and win at the highest levels.

And that height differential went away in a hurry. Wooden started his regular center, 6-5 senior Fred Slaughter but replaced him early in the game with 6-7 Doug McIntosh. But more importantly, UCLA's quickness advantage forced Bubas' hand. He had to pull Tison and go with 6-6 sophomore Jack Marin. Now, Marin had a pretty good game. So, not really a disadvantage for Duke. But UCLA's press decided that game. You can't commit 29 turnovers and expect to beat anyone, especially an undefeated team.

As an aside, I've long felt that UCLA's 1964 starting backcourt of Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich was and is the best backcourt in college-basketball history.

Aside 2, Wooden always claimed that Warren was the most cerebral player he ever coached and Erickson was the most athletic player he ever coached. And it's certainly plausible. Warren was a pretty sharp cookie and Erickson was a 6-5 jumping jack who was a member of the United States Olympic Volleyball Team.

But Wooden also admitted that he had a subtext. Warren is black and Erickson is white and he wanted to challenge the lazy stereotype that black players succeeded because they were great athletes and white players succeeded because they're smarter.

[Section 15]

I think I’ve posted this in another thread years ago, but the game in Charlotte was my first ever being at a Duke basketball game... Good memories.

Ah, bookends. The game at the indoor stadium was the last Duke game I attended in person. Mostly, I remember Mike Lewis grabbing just about every rebound there was to be had. Good memories indeed.

In the bad memories department, I was also at the "Wheaties" game the previous March that Jim mentioned. I think that team could have made the final four. At least it wouldn't have flamed out the the first game of the NCAAs the way the Wolfpack did.

Section 15

[wsb3]

I have no proof of this, but it was rumored that John Wooden said he’d never play in NC again after the two losses.

I always heard the same thing but as you stated, no proof. Of course, he had to play in NC in 1974. That didn't work out well for him either.