March Rewind: Top Two Teams at Final Four Overshadowed By Flu

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.

In a story that is especially poignant this year, the big winner when No. 1 Kentucky faced No. 2 Duke in the 1966 Final Four was … the flu.

Duke All-American and second-leading scorer at 18.5 ppg Bob Verga spent the night before the game in Duke Hospital, fighting off a 102-degree fever. He’d lost five pounds the week before the game, trying unsuccessfully to fight off the illness. Verga was released the morning of the game and rushed to College Park for the National Semifinal.

Meanwhile, Kentucky playmaker Larry Conley (11.5 ppg, team-high 3.4 assists), matched Verga’s temperature and spent two hours the night before breathing over a vaporizer.

The pair were clearly not at their best in the game Conley scored 10 points but had just one rebound and one assist. Verga shot just 2-of-7 for four points an missed a potential game-tying bank shot late to help Kentucky escape with an 83-79 win and a date with Texas Western in what would become an historic National Championship Game.

Duke coach Vic Bubas opened the game with a zone defense against the undersized Wildcats, but Kentucky was able to hit shots, building an early eight point lead. UK then hit a six-minute slump over which they didn’t hit a shot from the field, allowing Duke to pull in front by as many as five.

Kentucky pulled away in the second half, however, led by Louie Dampier, who hit 11-of-20 for 29 points. Pat Riley added 19 and Tom Kron pulled down 10 rebounds.

Duke’s Jack Marin matched Dampier with 29 points and added seven rebounds. Mike Lewis had 21 and Steve Vacendak 17.

Conley, who was breathing over a cup of Vicks on the bench while not in the game, was the hero, speeding the length of the court for a layup that put the game out of reach in the final minute.