We're Number One, We're Number One
Twin wins over UCLA 58 years ago propel Duke to top spot in polls for first time
Vic Bubas took Duke places it had never been before. Duke won its first ACC Tournament in 1960, Bubas’ first year at the helm, and followed with the program’s first two NCAA Tournament wins before losing to NYU in the East Region title game.
Duke made it to its first Final Four in 1963 and its first NCAA title game in 1964, losing to UCLA in the latter year, John Wooden’s first national title.
Duke lost three starters from that 1964 team, including All-American Jeff Mullins. But juniors Jack Marin and Steve Vacendak and sophomore sharp-shooter Bob Verga helped turn the 1965 team into the highest-scoring team in Duke history.
But after finishing first in the 1965 regular season Duke was upset in the ACC Tournament title game by NC State and stayed home, as the Wolfpack took the ACC’s only spot in the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA won that 1965 tournament, defeating Cazzie Russell and Michigan 91-80 behind Gail Goodrich’s 42 points.
Goodrich graduated after that season, along with top rebounder Keith Erickson.
Freshmen weren’t eligible in 1965-’66 so UCLA’s center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--then known as Lew Alcindor--had to be content with dominating freshmen basketball.
But even without Alcindor the Bruins returned enough firepower to open the 1965-’66 season as the top-ranked team in the AP poll, followed by Michigan, with Duke at third.
Vic Bubas always said that his 1965-’66 team was his best. Marin, Verga and Vacendak returned as starters, with Vacendak taking over as point guard from graduated Denny Ferguson. Junior Bob Riedy took over at power forward, while sophomore Mike Lewis replaced Hack Tison at center.
Bubas and Wooden had scheduled an unusual home-and-home series, two games in North Carolina one year, two at UCLA the following year.
The distance between Los Angeles and Durham was cited as the reason for playing two games in the same road trip, so maybe it wasn’t so unusual after all.
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