March Rewind: Duke Makes '78 Final Four, Starts '10 Run

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’s 1966 season came to a close as the Blue Devils beat Utah, 79-77 in the third-place consolation game in the Final Four. Jack Marin scored 23. Bob Verga added 15, while Mike Lewis had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

The Blue Devils advanced to their first Final Four in 12 seasons when Duke beat Villanova, 90-72, in Providence to win the 1978 East Region. Bill Foster said it was the most intensity the Blue Devils had shown since the Virginia game three weeks earlier. Jim Spanarkel scored 22, Mike Gminski 21 and Gene Banks 17.

The 1988 Blue Devils advanced to the Sweet 16, beating SMU, 94-79 in Chapel Hill. Danny Ferry shot just 5-of-14 for 12 points, but Kevin Strickland picked Duke up, hitting 11-of-18 from the field for 31 points. Alaa Abdelnaby scored 13 off the bench, hitting all six of his shots.

Duke advanced to the Elite Eight in 1999 with a 78-61 win over Southwest Missouri State in East Rutherford. Southwest Missouri was a 12-seed who made it to the second weekend by upsetting 5-seed Wisconsin and 5-seed Tennessee. Trajan Langdon scored 24 on 4-of-6 shooting from three. He also pulled down 10 rebounds. Elton Brand had 14 points and 13 boards.

The top-seeded Blue Devils made it to the Sweet 16 with a 69-64 win over Kansas in Winston-Salem in 2000. Facing a very tough 8-seed in Roy Williams’ Jayhawks, Duke saw Nick Bradford’s three-point play give Kansas the lead—it’s first since a minute before halftime—in the final minute of the game. Carlos Boozer tipped in a missed shot to put Duke back on top, then got a steal on the next Kansas possession. Chris Carrawell called time out on his knees after chasing down an offensive rebound, and Duke survived a tense final minute to advance.

Duke’s 2009 tournament got off to a good start as the 2-seed Blue Devils beat Binghamton in Greensboro, 86-62. Six Blue Devils scored in double figures, led by Jon Scheyer’s 15. Nolan Smith added 13 off the bench. Duke led by just 11 at the half, causing fans of the Tar Heels, also playing in Greensboro that day, to adopt Binghamton. Duke opened the second half by scoring on seven straight possessions, however, using a 17-2 run to break the game open.

The 2010 Duke tournament run began in Jacksonville, where the top-seeded Blue Devils routed Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 74-44. Kyle Singler scored 22 points with 10 rebounds. Jon Scheyer added 13, Lance Thomas 12 and Nolan Smith 10.

Duke advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2016 with a 71-64 win over Yale in Providence. The game looked like a laugher as Duke led 48-25 at the half and by as many as 27. Yale rallied, however, cutting the margin to three in the final minute. “Our house is on a cliff, and we hope it doesn't rain," coach Mike Krzyzewski said afterward. "That's who we've been (all year)."