I wrote an article in the local paper about the final four teams, and my comment about Duke will be understood by those of us who were following the Terps back in 1980.
As for Duke, my dear wife of almost 50 years did her graduate work at North Carolina, so the Blue Devils are not popular at our house. She's married to a Maryland fan who, since March 1980, occasionally moans, "Buck was fouled."
For those of you who were not involved back then, Maryland had the last shot in the 1980 ACC championship game, trailing by one. Their star player, Albert King, took and missed a 15 foot jumper that bounced up near the basket. Awaiting the ball underneath was Maryland's power forward Buck Williams. A Duke player, Kenny Dennard, came underneath Williams as he jumped, carrying the Terp out of bounds and at the feet of a referee who set a record for gutlessness in the final seconds of a game. Ever since, Maryland fans have been exclaiming, "Buck was fouled."
What few people remember is that the ACC had received so many complaints about the biased refereeing in favor of the NC schools that they hired SW Conference (now, more or less, the Big 12) zebras to work the ACC Tournament. Then we get a crucial none call.
Buck Williams wasn't a good foul shooter, so it's questionable whether he would have made two FTs to win the game. But we'll never know. Given Dennard's smart aleck answer to a question about the obvious foul right after the game, I've disliked the Dookies ever since.
As for Duke, my dear wife of almost 50 years did her graduate work at North Carolina, so the Blue Devils are not popular at our house. She's married to a Maryland fan who, since March 1980, occasionally moans, "Buck was fouled."
For those of you who were not involved back then, Maryland had the last shot in the 1980 ACC championship game, trailing by one. Their star player, Albert King, took and missed a 15 foot jumper that bounced up near the basket. Awaiting the ball underneath was Maryland's power forward Buck Williams. A Duke player, Kenny Dennard, came underneath Williams as he jumped, carrying the Terp out of bounds and at the feet of a referee who set a record for gutlessness in the final seconds of a game. Ever since, Maryland fans have been exclaiming, "Buck was fouled."
What few people remember is that the ACC had received so many complaints about the biased refereeing in favor of the NC schools that they hired SW Conference (now, more or less, the Big 12) zebras to work the ACC Tournament. Then we get a crucial none call.
Buck Williams wasn't a good foul shooter, so it's questionable whether he would have made two FTs to win the game. But we'll never know. Given Dennard's smart aleck answer to a question about the obvious foul right after the game, I've disliked the Dookies ever since.
