Lost amid the four ACC regular-season titles, four ACC tournament championships and three Final Four appearances during his neatly packaged and highly successful decade at Duke was the unpopularity of Vic Bubas when he arrived as the Blue Devils head basketball coach in May of 1959.
His hiring was not so much greeted as it was scorned by Duke faithful in much the same manner a young Mike Krzyzewski was questioned during his early Durham days, except that Krzyzewski at least had some head-coaching experience at Army. Bubas had none, not even at the high school level. Like Krzyzewski, Bubas lacked Blue Devil bloodlines as well.