March Rewind: Duke Beats Michigan, Loses to UCLA in '64 Final Four

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.

Final Fours used to be a bit more condensed than they are these days. In 1964, when the Blue Devils made their second straight Final Four and reached the national championship game for the first time in history, they played on back-to-back days, March 20 and 21.

Duke opened in Kansas City with Michigan, who featured future NBA All-Star Cazzie Russell. He was as advertised, scoring 31 on 13-of-19 shooting and adding eight rebounds. Bill Buntin added 19 with nine boards.

Both Michigan stars fouled out, however, and Duke, led by Jay Buckley’s 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Hack Tison’s 12 points and 13 boards, built a nine-point halftime lead and cruised to a 91-80 win, avenging a 16-point loss to Michigan earlier in the year that had some doubting Duke’s toughness.

That gave the Blue Devils a shot at the national title against unbeaten UCLA. Duke had the size advantage, with three-players taller than the Bruins’ biggest.

“I think we can beat their press, and I’m not so sure we can’t run with them,” coach Vic Bubas said.

Duke led midway through the first half before the press took its toll, spurring a 16-0 UCLA run that led the Bruins to their first ever NCAA title, 98-83.

Gail Goodrich led UCLA with 27 points. Walt Hazzard added 11 and eight assists. Kenny Washington scored 26 and 12 rebounds off the bench.

Jeff Mullins led the way for Duke with 22 points. Buckley added 18 points and nine rebounds. Jack Marin had 16 and 10 boards off the bench.