March Rewind: '01, '63 Blue Devils Start Their Runs

What's March without Duke Tournament basketball? With this year's ACC and NCAA Tournaments cancelled, we'll go back in time to look at the top Blue Devils postseason games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to SportsReference.com for boxscores and the Duke Library for the newspaper archive.

Duke started its run to the 1963 Final Four with an 81-76 win over NYU in College Park, Maryland. The Blue Devils extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 19. They were led by Jeff Mullins, who scored 25. Art Heyman added 22 and 13 rebounds, while Jay Buckley had 10 points and 16 rebounds. NYU was led by a pair of future NBA players as Barry Kramer, then the nation’s leading scorer, scored 34 and Happy Hairston had 18 points and 11 rebounds.

The 1980 Blue Devils fell short of the Final Four, losing to Purdue, 68-60 in the Mideast Regional Final in Lexington. Duke had 22 turnovers in the game, and the Blue Devils battled foul trouble, with Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard both fouling out. Mike Gminski had 17 points and nine rebounds. Purdue was led by 26 from Joe Barry Carroll.

The 1986 Blue Devils moved on to the Sweet 16 with an 89-61 win over Old Dominion in Greensboro. Duke forced turnovers on three of ODU’s first four possessions and never looked back. Johnny Dawkins scored 25 and four other Blue Devils reached double figures—Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas, Tommy Amaker and Danny Ferry. ODU’s Kenny Gattison finished with 17.

Duke advanced to the Sweet 16 again in 1998, beating Oklahoma State, 79-73 in Lexington. Roshown McLeod led the way with 22 points. Trajan Langdon had 17 and Chris Carrawell 11. Doug Gottlieb scored seven for OSU.

Duke’s 2001 tournament run got off to a fast start as the top-ranked Blue Devils hammered Monmouth 95-52 in Greensboro. Duke led 62-29 at the half as Jason Williams led the way with a game-high 22 points. Shane Battier scored 21 with 10 rebounds. Nate James scored 15 off the bench.

Second-seeded Duke opened the 2018 NCAA Tournament with an 89-67 win over Iona in Pittsburgh. With Trevon Duval and Wendell Carter Jr. both playing on balky ankles, Marvin Bagley III scored 22 points with seven rebounds and senior Grayson Allen added 16 points.

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