Feb. 6, 2008

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Reynolds Coliseum opened on the campus of North Carolina State University in November 1949. Reynolds hosted three Southern Conference tournaments before the ACC was founded. It then hosted the first 13 ACC Tournaments. It also was the site of the 12 Dixie Classics, a holiday tournament held between Christmas and New Year's.

All 26 of these tournaments consisted of eight teams. Half were the so-called Big Four: NC State, North Carolina, Duke, and Wake Forest; the other half were teams from outside North Carolina. Defying the odds, the teams from North Carolina captured every single one of these tournaments, with one exception. Fifty years ago, Bud Millikan's Maryland Terrapins came south, pulled out three tight victories and left with the only ACC Tournament title won by a non-North Carolina team in the 1950s or 1960s.

Bud Millikan was in his eighth season as head coach at Maryland in 1958. Millikan had coached for the legendary Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now State) and had adopted many of Iba's core teachings. Perry Moore, who went on to a distinguished career in athletic administration, says, "Millikan was an extraordinary teacher and a tireless worker. He didn't let a detail pass him by. He always had us ready to play."

Center Al Bunge adds, "We never lost a game because we were out-coached."

Millikan did all this while fighting city hall. Bob McDonald, who red-shirted in 1958 before playing the next three seasons, says, "Football was king at Maryland in those days. Millikan didn't have the resources the other coaches had but he made do with hard-work and discipline. But he made no secret of the fact that he felt like he deserved more."

Maryland ran a deliberate, pattern-oriented offense. Jerry Bechtle, a reserve guard on the 1958 team, says, "Teams didn't have to scout us. Everyone knew what we were going to do. Millikan's attitude was `We're gonna run our stuff and we're going run it right down your throat.'

"Everyone was supposed to be at a specific place on every play. Free-lancing was strongly discouraged."

Bunge says, "We would run if we got the rebound. But if the break wasn't there, we slowed it down, protected the ball, and looked for a good shot."

Millikan was a devoted adherent of man-to-man defense. Bechtle says, "Zone was a dirty word. We knew that even if the offense struggled, the defense would be there to bail us out."

Bunge notes, "The idea was to funnel everyone to the middle of the court, where the help was. Never let anyone have the baseline. That was the ultimate sin."

Millikan also played lots of people. Bechtle says, "If he had five All-Americans, he would have run the same offense. He thought of us as interchangeable parts. He was a my-way-or-the-highway guy."

Maryland's depth would prove invaluable as the season progressed.

Maryland had gone 16-10 in 1957, including a double-overtime loss to undefeated North Carolina, which would go on to win the NCAA title that year. The Terrapins returned several key players for 1958, including athletic wing Nick Davis, defensive specialist John Nacincik, and Moore, an under-sized center.

McDonald says Davis "had Harlem Globetrotter ability, huge hands that could do anything with a basketball."

But he wasn't the only athlete on the team. Moore finished fifth in the 1956 Olympic Trials in the decathlon, which helps explain how he was able to play center at 6'4."

There were some key additions for 1958. Bunge at 6'8" and fellow sophomore 6'6" Nick McNeil gave Maryland quality size. Guard Tom Young, who would go on to coach Rutgers to the 1976 Final Four, returned for his senior year after a stint in the military. Nacincik and Moore also were military veterans, giving the team a toughness and poise that would serve them well. Moore maintains "Millikan loosened the reins some that year. He trusted the experience."

Nacincik agrees. "He let us go a little further because he had confidence in us."

Deep, balanced, and experienced, Maryland won its first six games, including a 71-62 win over Adolph Rupp's perennially powerful Kentucky Wildcats. The hot start propelled Maryland to sixth in the AP poll and Maryland remained ranked the rest of the season.

A second statement win came January 11 when the Terps knocked off McGuire's third-ranked Tar Heels 74-61 in front of 15,100 fans at Cole Field House. This was the largest crowd to ever watch a college basketball game in the South.

The Terps were 7-2 in the ACC and in position to finish first in the conference when Tobacco Road rose up and bit them. NC State handed Maryland a triple-overtime loss in Raleigh on February 15. A week later Maryland played at Duke and at UNC on consecutive nights (that's how they saved money in those days). Maryland lost both games and finished 9-5 in the ACC, trailing Duke at 11-3 and North Carolina and NC State at 10-4. All four teams entered the ACC Tournament ranked in the top 17 in the AP poll. Nacincik and Davis were voted second-team All-ACC.

Many ACC teams in the 1950s still played in tiny gymnasiums, making 12,400-seat Reynolds even more imposing. Maryland played in Cole Field House, so that wasn't a problem. "Still," Nacincik says, "Reynolds could be a tough place to play. The fans seemed to be right on top of you; a wall of faces on all four sides."

In the pre-interstate era, getting from Maryland to Raleigh and acquiring tickets wasn't easy. "We may have had a few hundred fans there," Nacincik says. "Not much more."

The four ranked teams each survived its opening round game, although none of the wins was easy. Maryland defeated Virginia 70-66 behind 24 points from Davis and 22 points from McNeil. Maryland led by 13 in the second half but Virginia rallied to tie the game at 63 before a three-point play by Maryland reserve Gene Danko stopped the run.

Top-seeded and sixth-ranked Duke was next for the Terps. Maryland led 29-23 at the half and extended the lead to 15 (53-38) in the middle of the second half. A 12-0 run put Duke back in the game. Bobby Joe Harris tied the game for Duke at 61 in the final minute. Maryland held for the final shot but held too long; Danko's basket came just after the buzzer. But keyed by McNeil and Young, the Terps controlled the overtime and won 71-65. McNeil led everyone with 22 points, while Davis added 19. Bunge's 14 rebounds helped Maryland to a critical 45-32 rebounding advantage.

North Carolina defeated NC State 64-58 in the other semifinal match-up. Maryland should have been at a disadvantage. Not only were they much further from home, they had been forced into an extra period in the semifinals. Bunge was bothered by ulcerative colitis, a stomach disorder that made it difficult for him to maintain a decent playing weight. North Carolina fans gobbled up all the loose tickets.

Nacincik says this is where the poise came in. "If you tune out the crowd, one place is the same as another. It's still a court 100 feet by 50 feet, the basket is still 10 feet high. Get past the intimidation and do your job."

The title game was the opposite of the semifinal win over Duke. Millikan picked up an early technical foul, Maryland was in foul trouble, and UNC jumped to a 30-17 lead. Millikan told his team, "Gosh, there's nothing wrong with us except we're not hitting. Just go back out there and stop them at the other end, and the points will come for us in time."

Another reserve, Bill Murphy, kept Maryland in the game in the first half. The Terps trailed 34-27 at intermission.

McNeil missed much of the first half with three fouls but keyed a second-half comeback. Maryland caught up in the middle of the second half at 56-56, went on a 14-3 run and salted away the game from the foul line. The final was a deceptive 86-74, as Maryland scored 16 points in the final two minutes. The Terps made 40 of 52 foul shots as the frustrated Tar Heels fouled 33 times in vain attempts to force turnovers from Maryland's skilled ball-handlers.

McNeil led the champions with 21 points, while tournament Most Valuable Player Nick Davis added 16, giving him 59 for the three games. Murphy, who came into the game averaging less than two points per game, stunned everyone with 19 points. ACC Player of the Year Pete Brennan led UNC with 29 points in his final college game.

The title moved Maryland back to sixth in the AP poll. The ACC champs opened NCAA Tournament play in Madison Square Garden where they easily handled Boston College 86-63. Davis scored 24 points.

They moved to Charlotte for an East Regional semifinal match against fifth-ranked Temple. The Owls were led by guards Guy Rodgers and Bill "Pickles" Kennedy. But it was Temple's inside power that proved decisive, especially big men Jay Norman and Tink Van Patton. By this point Bunge was but a shell of his former self. He recalls, "They had a couple of big, strong players who just beat the tar out of me. I was too weak to respond." Still, Maryland hung tough. Temple led 39-32 at the half but Maryland fought back. They had the ball down by a point late but as Bechtle describes "We didn't execute the play we had called" and failed to get off a shot. The final was 71-67.

Temple out-rebounded Maryland 45-34 and held Bunge to 5 points and 6 rebounds. McNeil led Maryland with 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Davis added 18 points. But they were the only Terps in double figures. Maryland defeated Manhattan in the consolation game, while Temple routed Dartmouth to win the region.

The Owls lost to Kentucky 61-60 and Kentucky defeated Seattle by 12 for Rupp's fourth and final NCAA title. Remember, this is the same Kentucky team that Maryland beat by nine earlier in the season. It's not hard to envision a scenario whereby Maryland would have been the team cutting down the nets that season and the Maryland players all feel that they let one get away. Nacincik says, "You never know for sure but we think we could have gone all the way. Everything was clicking. But we did our best, left our hearts out on floor every night."

The 1958 season was Millikan's high-water mark at Maryland. He never again made an ACC Tournament final and resigned following the 1967 season with a 243-182 mark. Only Lefty Driesell and Gary Williams have won more games in College Park.

Bechtle, who still lives in Maryland, has high praise for Williams. Maryland is going to honor the 1958 team on February 16, in conjunction with a game against Florida State. "Gary Williams has such respect for Maryland's tradition and history," Bechtel says. "He made this reunion happen."

Bunge now lives in Oklahoma but expects to attend the reunion. "It brings back fond memories," he says. "I liked my coach, I liked my teammates, I enjoyed my years there. We accomplished something."

Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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