Duke Basketball, Vic Bubas And The 60’s, Part II

Duke staggered into the 1960 ACC Tournament. The Blue Devils lost five of their last seven regular-season games, losses by margins of 10, 26, 10, 19 and 25 points. The only two wins were over a truly awful Virginia team that would end its season at 6-18.

Duke was 12-10 overall, 7-7 in the ACC and to any outside observer ready to have its season end.

But Vic Bubas thought the downward spiral gave Duke a chance to start over.

“We have everything to gain and nothing to lose,” he told his team.

The ACC Tournament was held at Reynolds Coliseum, on the NC State campus, only 25 miles or so from Duke’s campus. Raleigh was hit with a seven-inch snowfall earlier that week, part of a pattern that made…