Duke - Greatest Program of the past 30 years

[Sultan__of__Swine]

Duke University is unarguably the greatest basketball program of the past 30 years. Their success over this period of time is quite amazing. They didn't just pile up a bunch of titles with one group of players, its been a sustained success over 30 years. They have also done so with one coach and have avoided NCAA probation or scandal that many other programs have experienced.

In that span of 30 years Duke's resume is amazing.

29 appearances in the NCAA tournament out of 30 attempts
12 Final Fours
9 Finals game appearances
5 National Championships

No other school comes close to that:


UConn - 4 National Championships, 4 Finals game appearances
UK - 3 National Championships, 5 Finals game appearances
UNC - 3 National Championships, 3 Finals game appearances
Kansas - 2 Nationals Championships, 5 Finals game appearances
Louisville - 2 National Championships, 2 Finals game appearances
Indiana - 1 National Championships, 3 Finals game appearances

Even if you go back 40 years to 1975, UK(78), UNC(82), Louisville(80) and Indiana (81, 76) all get one more national title added in (two for Indiana), but still fall below what Duke has accomplished.

 

[OneEarWonder]

Duke's success and consistency is amazing. Coach K is the best ball coach out there, he runs a great program. He has shown his ability to stay relevant and successful throughout the changing landscape. They are always in the conversation.

Hard to hate on Duke for any reason. Even last night, I was hoping for Bo and Wisconsin to win; but was not upset with Duke winning.

 

[The Red Ass]

It's pretty amazing. I wouldn't even say "arguably." They have averaged a banner once every five years since 1991. Thats stout.

Always amazing to me too Uconns success also, but they don't receive nearly the same amount of love as the rest of the schools listed.

 

[cardadistance]

Interesting and definitely amazing!! Red, I would point out that Sultan used the word "unarguably, Those fans (of another school we all know) that constantly crow about "their achievements" in winning eight final fours should be reminded that "they" did not do anything and five of those eight championships were won before many of the same fans were even born, i,e 37, 57, 64, 66, and 67 years ago! In fact rumor has it that the baskets used then were actually peach baskets.

This post was edited on 4/7 11:42 AM by cardadistance

 

[Sultan__of__Swine]

Originally posted by cardadistance:
Interesting and definitely amazing!! Red, I would point out that Sultan used the word "unarguably, Those fans (of another school we all know) that constantly crow about "their achievements" in winning eight final fours should be reminded that "they" did not do anything and five of those eight championships were won before many of the same fans were even born, i,e 37, 57, 64, 66, and 67 years ago! In fact rumor has it that the baskets used then were actually peach baskets.

This post was edited on 4/7 11:42 AM by cardadistance

Completely agree. Fans who try to brag about titles won in the 1940's and 50's is lost on me as well as the total program wins. There are schools that played in weak conferences for decades piling up wins and that's suppose to be a gauge of success? Now if you want to look at overall winning percentage with relation to strength of schedule then that would be worth bragging about.

If you're going to evaluate the greatest programs you can realistically go back 40 to 50 years at most. The game was more or less racially integrated, jump shots and playing above the rim were part of the game, and you had to win more than 3 games in the tournament to win the National Championship. Honestly, I would argue that 1975 would be the first year to truly evaluate greatness. You had win 5 games to win it all and in 1975 the NCAA began to allow at-large teams instead of just the conference champions, so the best teams actually made it into the tournament.

1939-1950: 8 teams (3 wins = National Championship)1951-1952: 16 teams (4 wins = National Championship)1953-1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams 1975-1978: 32 teams1979: 40 teams1980-1982: 48 teams1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament)1985-2000: 64 teams2001-2010: 65 teams (one play-in game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round)2011-present: 68 teams

Prior to 1975, only one team per conference could be in the NCAA tournament. However, after several highly ranked teams in the country were denied entrance into the tournament (e.g., South Carolina, which was 14-0 in conference play during 1970, Southern Cal, which was ranked #2 in the nation during 1971, and Maryland, which was ranked #3 in the nation in 1974), the NCAA began to place at-large teams in the tournament, instead of just conference champions.

 

[zipp]

Proud of our ACC brother!

(And it chafes an LPT a$$ or two.)

"Elite program", my a$$...

 

[Briggsky]

Why not include 1980 when we had our first of three national titles. Some selective choices you used. KY actually went 38 years between 1958 and 1996 with only one title.

 

[Mike'sMarbles]

Duke is clearly the premiere program of the past 30 years. Coach K's accomplishments are amazing. It will be interesting to see how much longer Coach K sticks around before retiring, and whether the next coach can keep it going. If they make a great hire for the next coach, they might challenge UCLA for total titles down the road. Kentucky is definitely in their sights now, only 3 more to go.

 

[Sultan__of__Swine]

Originally posted by Briggsky:
Why not include 1980 when we had our first of three national titles. Some selective choices you used. KY actually went 38 years between 1958 and 1996 with only one title.

I looked back 30 years which would be 1985 and then added in stats if you went back 40 years to 1975. Duke is still far and away the top team.


I really do think 1975 is the best year to begin evaluating the best overall programs due to the inclusion of teams who didn't win their conference into the tournament and the larger field of teams which required a much more difficult road to the Final Four and National Championship game.

 

[Sultan__of__Swine]

Originally posted by Briggsky:
Why not include 1980 when we had our first of three national titles. Some selective choices you used. KY actually went 38 years between 1958 and 1996 with only one title.

I looked back 30 years which would be 1985 and then added in stats if you went back 40 years to 1975. Duke is still far and away the top team.


I really do think 1975 is the best year to begin evaluating the best overall programs due to the inclusion of teams who didn't win their conference into the tournament and the larger field of teams which required a much more difficult road to the Final Four and National Championship game.

 

[ItsintheCards]

No doubt...and I don't think second is very close. And as far as we know, they do it cleanly, although I do believe they have some association with WWW, which tarnishes their recent success a little. Recruiting with the aid of an NBA agent just isn't a good thing IMO.

 

[ULCard17]

Does anyone remember when it looked like the wheels had fallen off this season with Duke? Amazing how these hall of fame coaches can turn things around.

 

[OmegaCard]

They've been Corey Maggette amazing.

 

[OmegaCard]

Originally posted by ItsintheCards:
No doubt...and I don't think second is very close. And as far as we know, they do it cleanly, although I do believe they have some association with WWW, which tarnishes their recent success a little. Recruiting with the aid of an NBA agent just isn't a good thing IMO.

Couldn't help notice last night it was team Nike against team Adidas.

 

[ItsintheCards]

Yep...after the Blakeney recruitment, Nike is the bad side of college basketball. Glad we stick with adidas.

 

[Count Des Moine]

Originally posted by Sultan__of__Swine:

Originally posted by cardadistance:
Interesting and definitely amazing!! Red, I would point out that Sultan used the word "unarguably, Those fans (of another school we all know) that constantly crow about "their achievements" in winning eight final fours should be reminded that "they" did not do anything and five of those eight championships were won before many of the same fans were even born, i,e 37, 57, 64, 66, and 67 years ago! In fact rumor has it that the baskets used then were actually peach baskets.

This post was edited on 4/7 11:42 AM by cardadistance

Completely agree. Fans who try to brag about titles won in the 1940's and 50's is lost on me as well as the total program wins. There are schools that played in weak conferences for decades piling up wins and that's suppose to be a gauge of success? Now if you want to look at overall winning percentage with relation to strength of schedule then that would be worth bragging about.

If you're going to evaluate the greatest programs you can realistically go back 40 to 50 years at most. The game was more or less racially integrated, jump shots and playing above the rim were part of the game, and you had to win more than 3 games in the tournament to win the National Championship. Honestly, I would argue that 1975 would be the first year to truly evaluate greatness. You had win 5 games to win it all and in 1975 the NCAA began to allow at-large teams instead of just the conference champions, so the best teams actually made it into the tournament.

1939-1950: 8 teams (3 wins = National Championship)1951-1952: 16 teams (4 wins = National Championship)1953-1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams 1975-1978: 32 teams1979: 40 teams1980-1982: 48 teams1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament)1985-2000: 64 teams2001-2010: 65 teams (one play-in game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round)2011-present: 68 teams

Prior to 1975, only one team per conference could be in the NCAA tournament. However, after several highly ranked teams in the country were denied entrance into the tournament (e.g., South Carolina, which was 14-0 in conference play during 1970, Southern Cal, which was ranked #2 in the nation during 1971, and Maryland, which was ranked #3 in the nation in 1974), the NCAA began to place at-large teams in the tournament, instead of just conference champions.

Those are all great points. You guys are really onto something. Can we expound on that a little, and include baseball? I'm a Dodgers fan myself, and I absolutely HATE the Yankees. Lets start a movement of only counting their World Series wins that occurred since 1977, and wipe out the rest. That would mean instead of 27 rings in their history, they now only have 7.
After all, they won the majority of their rings before so many other teams were even in the league, and the playoff rounds were half of what they are now. They won them before the Marlins and Diamondbacks even existed; coincidentally both of those teams have beaten the Yankees in the World Series. Ha ha, I bet if the Marlins and Diamondbacks had been around in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's the Yankees would not have nearly the same amount of rings.
Babe Ruth? Who? Roger Maris? Who is that? Whitey Ford? Mickey Mantle? Joe Dimaggio? Yogi Berra? Good gosh, those are all OLD guys and should not count.
Great work guys!

 

[OmegaCard]

Originally posted by ItsintheCards:
Yep...after the Blakeney recruitment, Nike is the bad side of college basketball. Glad we stick with adidas.

Great read on the recruitment of Kevin Love.

Kevin Love

 

[milt&lancaster]

Originally posted by OmegaCard:
They've been Corey Maggette amazing.

I think every elite program has probably been scrutinized at some angle in the last 30 years. UCONN,Louisville, IU, Kansas and of course the major cheater UK has had some "dirt" on their program at some point. No doubt they (NCAA) looked the other way on the Maggette and Duhon cases but for the most part have been relatively clean. In addition, UNC will probably absorb some violations for their fake courses going forward. If all you have on Duke is Corey Maggette, then they're not that bad.

This post was edited on 4/7 6:42 PM by milt&lancaster

 

[OmegaCard]

Originally posted by milt&lancaster:
I think every elite program has probably been scrutinized at some angle in the last 30 years. UCONN,Louisville, IU, Kansas and of course the major cheater UK has had some "dirt" on their program at some point. No doubt they (NCAA) looked the other way on the Maggette and Duhon cases but for the most part have been relatively clean. In addition, UNC will probably absorb some violations for their fake courses going forward. If all you have on Duke is Corey Maggette, then they're not that bad.

This post was edited on 4/7 6:42 PM by milt&lancaster

I don't need anything on Duke. But to pretend they're above it all and UK isn't

. I'm not buying that ESPN bridge to nowhere.