NCAA Tournament. Vic Bubas' Duke teams still flourished. What began during that 1959–60 season grew rapidly over the course of the decade. In that first season, Duke was blown out twice each by Wake Forest and North Carolina. But in the ACC Tournament, Bubas got revenge, stunning 16th-ranked North Carolina and 18th-ranked Wake Forest in the title game for Duke's first ACC championship. Duke received the automatic bid in the NCAA tournament, where the Blue Devils won two games before losing to 12th-ranked NYU. It was a very surprising first season for the young coach. As his program progressed, Duke would finish in the AP Top-10 basketball poll in seven of his ten seasons. He led Duke to the NCAA Final Four three times (1963, 64 and 66). His teams finished first in league play on four occasions and won four ACC championships, competing in the ACC Tournament championship game in eight of his ten seasons. Bubas led Duke to a 213–67 record, which was the 3rd-highest win total in America during the Sixties. His .761 winning percentage ranks tenth all-time among NCAA coaches. Retirement and death Bubas retired from coaching in 1969 and then served as a Duke administrator, eventually becoming the vice president of the university. In 1976, he became the first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, a position he held for fourteen years until his retirement. The Sun Belt's all-sports championship trophy, the Vic Bubas Cup, is named after him. In 2007 Bubas was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Bubas died on the morning of April 16, 2018 at age 91. Head coaching record See also List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach References 1927 births 2018 deaths Basketball coaches from Indiana Basketball players from Gary, Indiana Duke Blue Devils men's basketball coaches Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees NC State Wolfpack men's basketball coaches NC State Wolfpack men's basketball players Sportspeople from Gary, Indiana Sun Belt Conference commissioners American men's basketball players Guards (basketball)