Larry Miller, RIP
Tar Heels Legend
Sometime in the spring of 1964 ACC basketball underwent a paradigm shift. The full impact didn’t happen right away. But once it took hold, it lasted awhile.
That was when Pennsylvania prep superstar Larry Miller stunned the college-basketball world by selecting Dean Smith and North Carolina over Vic Bubas and Duke.
Some context. Dick Groat was Duke’s first transcendent basketball star.
Knew his way around a baseball diamond while we’re at it.
Groat was a Pittsburgh legend and Duke benefited by bringing in such Keystone State prepstars as Bernie Janicki, Rudy D’Emilio, Ronnie Mayer, Joe Belmont, Paul Schmidt and Doug Kistler.
Vic Bubas expanded Duke’s recruiting footprint but still brought in Denny Ferguson, Jack Marin, Steve Vacendak, Brent Kitching and Bob Riedy, among others, from Pennsylvania.
Duke had plenty of competition of course. Philly’s Big Five were all nationally competitive in that period and Wake Forest snatched Len Chappell from Duke.
But North Carolina wasn’t often in the mix. Frank McGuire mined the Greater NYC area and it took some time for Smith to hit reset.
Miller was a big reset. Recruiting wasn’t a spectator sport in the 1960s. But Miller, Mike Lewis and Wes Unseld were the guys that would have been in the mix for best 1964 senior had it been.
Why did Miller pick Smith? Maybe Bubas took Miller for granted. Certainly Smith worked his derriere off. Miller said pretty much the same thing Johnny Dawkins said when asked why he picked Duke over Maryland, Villanova and Notre Dame. He preferred helping build a program over sustaining a program.
Miller was a burly 6-4, 200 or so pounds. He was a lefty who could bull to the basket but knock down an open jumper.
The sophomore Miller joined junior Bob Lewis for the 1965-66 season. They combined for 48 points per game. But Marin, Vacendak, Bob Verga, Lewis and Riedy ruled the ACC roost that year. Duke defeated North Carolina three times, the final win 21-20 in the ACC Tournament.
But Smith got an infusion of talent the following season in sophomores Rusty Clark, Dick Grubar and Bill Bunting, while Duke struggled to replaced graduated Marin and Vacendak. North Carolina beat Duke three times, including an 82-73 win in the ACC Tournament title game. Miller had one of the great ACC Tournament performances in that title game, hitting 13 of 14 from the field on the way to a 32-point, 11-rebound game.
The Tar Heels went on to Smith’s first Final Four. They lost twice, if that makes you feel any better.
Duke went to the NIT and lost to Walt Frazier and Southern Illinois.
Duke and Carolina split in 1968, Duke’s win an epic 87-86 triple overtime win in the Indoor Stadium.
So, Miller went 4-4 against Duke but only after an 0-3 start.
Miller was named ACC Player of the Year in 1967 and 1968 and remains the only UNC player to be named ACC Player of the Year twice. That’s a pretty amazing factoid.
He was second-team AP All-American in 1967, first team in 1968.
Miller had some good years in the ABA, once scoring 67 points for the Carolina Cougars in a 1972 win over Memphis. It is the ABA single-game scoring record.
Larry Miller died today at the age of 79. No cause announced.
What would have happened had Miller gone to Duke, as most expected?
Well, short-term, plug him into that loaded 1966 Duke starting lineup instead of Riedy and it’s hard to see Duke losing to anybody. Verga and Miller in 1967, Miller and Lewis in 1968 but even then going up against Lew Alcindor and UCLA would have been a tough ask.
But Duke 1966 with Larry Miller. Be still, my beating heart.
Long-term? Would an NCAA title have kept Bubas around longer? Darned if I know. But with Miller, Verga and Lewis gone in 1969, Carolina had surpassed Duke and Duke wouldn’t catch up until 1978.
Maybe Miller at Duke would just have postponed the inevitable. Vic Bubas just got sick of recruiting at a time when Larry Miller helped jump-start a burgeoning powerhouse.
A worthy and honorable adversary. May he rest in peace.