The Foster era at Duke was brief but fascinating.
Bill Foster arrived in Durham in 1974 after a bizarre attempt to lure former Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp out of retirement (only the death of Rupp’s farm manager stopped this from actually happening. Rupp was 72 at the time; he would die of spinal cancer in 1977).
Foster was a builder and by 1978, he had built a remarkable team. Built around junior Jim Spanarkel, sophomore Mike Gminski, freshmen, Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard, and anchored by NCCU transfer
John Harrell at the point, Duke sprinted all the way to the 1978 finals, losing to Kentucky.
The wheels kind of fell off in 1979, as Foster had trouble dealing with the hype and pressure of being the #1 preseason team, but in 1980, Duke had recovered its mojo and was again one of the better teams in the nation.
The Blue Devils would meet Maryland in the ACC Tournament finals, and that one came down to the wire, with Duke having the ball at the end. And then, the ACC got one of the most controversial finishes in the long history of the tournament. There’s minimal video of this game, but we found one clip.
Maryland brought the ball in with seconds left on the clock and Duke up 73-72. Albert King got the ball and shot right away. Dennard and Maryland’s Buck Williams were back-to-back under the basket, and Williams went up to rebound the miss.
This is one of the most dramatic plays in ACC Tournament history, because Williams had his fingertips on the ball and was ready to tip it in. However, he and Dennard had been leaning on each other, and when Williams leapt, Dennard, no longer supported, fell back.
At the split-second that Williams got his fingers on the ball, he had to react to Dennard.
The ball bounced on the rim a second time while he was falling, and Gminski went for the rebound. It bounced off his shoulder and Banks picked it up and ran away from the basket.
And just like that, the game was over, and Duke had its second ACC Championship in three years.
Williams never accepted Dennard’s explanation and has always maintained he was undercut, but Dennard is correct: once Williams left the ground, there was nothing to keep Dennard from falling.
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