Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus #7 UConn on March 29, 2026 , Loss , 72, to, 73
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Final
Men's Basketball
72
vs #7 UConn
73
Gminski Knows Records Are Meant To Be Broken
3/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
by Jim Sumner, Blue Devil Weekly
“I know it's the oldest clich? in the book, but records really are made to be broken.” That's Mike Gminski's take on J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams' season-long assault on assorted Duke, ACC, and NCAA records.
Gminski has dropped down on some pretty selective lists, but “it's been fun. People who never had a chance to see me play are hearing my name. Nothing wrong with that.”
If you never had a chance to see Mike Gminski play, you missed the finest pure center to ever put on Duke blue. Gminski was an athletically and academically precocious youngster from Connecticut. “I didn't start playing formal, organized basketball until the eighth grade,” Gminski recalls. “Then three years of high school and I was off to the ACC. It's not like today, that's for sure.”
Gminski and his family had decided that he would graduate from high school a year early. While attending the Maryland basketball camp the summer before his junior year, Gminski alerted camp counselor Terry Chili to that fact. Chili, a rising senior at Duke, educated Gminski about Duke and made sure Bill Foster and his staff knew about the talented youngster.
Gminski was “blown away” by his visit to Duke. “It was a great fit on every level. Great academics, a beautiful campus, lots of students from the Northeast. Plus, I was looking for a place where I could play right away.”
Gminski certainly did play right away. He started his very first game at Duke and that was in the Big Four. “I had a pretty steep learning curve,” he says. “I remember Clemson's Tree Rollins having a triple-double at my expense, but I was a quick learner. I figured out what would work, what wouldn't, and made the necessary adjustments.”
Gminski was indeed a quick learner. In only his fourth varsity game he outscored and outrebounded Washington senior center James Edwards, who would go on to play 19 years in the NBA. He likewise outplayed Rollins two of the three times they met.
Gminski's freshman season was one of the great what-ifs in Duke hoops history. Led by senior guard Tate Armstrong, Duke jumped to an 11-1 start, a streak that included a Big Four win over North Carolina State ? ending a nine-game losing streak to the Wolfpack ? and a road win over 15th-ranked Tennessee. After an overtime loss to Clemson and a loss at UNC, Duke defeated Virginia in overtime at Charlottesville, Duke's first ACC road win since 1972. But it was a costly victory. Armstrong broke his right wrist and missed the rest of the season. “I think we would have won 20 games, at least, had Tate not been hurt,” speculates Gminski. “I still feel for Tate. He worked so hard to bring Duke back and he was deprived of his big chance.”
Gminski and Jim Spanarkel strived valiantly down the stretch but Duke lost a boatload of close games and finished 14-13. Gminski and North Carolina State's “Hawkeye” Whitney shared the ACC rookie of the year award.
Gminski's last three years are better remembered. First-team All-ACC three times, an appearance in the 1978 NCAA title game, the 1979 ACC player of the year award, numerous All-America designations, including three Academic All-America awards. During his senior season Gminski passed Spanarkel to become Duke's career scoring leader and Randy Denton to become Duke's career rebound leader. “I don't remember it being that big a deal,” says Gminski. “Especially the scoring record. It hadn't been a record long enough.”
His final home game was a big deal. In the spring of 1952, Duke retired the No. 10 jersey worn by basketball and baseball star Dick Groat. Then Duke went almost three decades without retiring another basketball number. Shortly before tipoff against Clemson on Feb. 20, Gminski learned that his number 43 would be retired that night. Nobody had bothered to give Gminski any warning.
“It was a complete surprise. It had been so long since Groat, it didn't even occur to me. I was already a wreck because of senior day and then this. It blew me out of the water. I was in a complete fog.”
Gminski started slowly but recovered and led Duke to an overtime win over a Clemson team that would go on to advance to the NCAA West Regional finals. He had 29 points, 19 rebounds and seven blocks in his final home game. Duke has retired a lot of jerseys since then, but based on Gminski's feedback, the school has never since attempted to link a retirement ceremony to senior day.
Gminski went on to play 14 years in the NBA, averaging around 12 points and seven rebounds in almost 1,000 games. He finished his career in Charlotte and decided to stay there. He thought about going back to school, thought about politics. He met with former President Richard Nixon and worked for Richard Vinroot's second North Carolina gubernatorial campaign.
“Two things pushed me away from politics,” he says. “The first was family. Having spent 14 years in the NBA on the road, I was ready to put down roots. And the fund-raising part turned me off. I have no problem asking people to write a check for the Duke hospital, but politicians are always raising money. Being on the phone all the time, begging for money, I found that distasteful.”
Instead Gminski settled in as a radio analyst with the Charlotte Hornets. “I thought I would be with the Hornets forever,” he says. But Charlotte packed up and moved to New Orleans and Gminski had no interest in going with them. Fortunately, Fox was beginning its ACC Sunday night broadcasts and Gminski jumped at the chance to work in the area.
“I have lots of road trips but most of them are a day or two so I'm rarely gone long, certainly nothing like those two-week road trips to the West Coast that we used to have in the NBA.” Gminski also calls for Raycom-Jefferson Pilot, has a radio show in Charlotte, and is a corporate spokesperson.
His job has enabled him to follow Redick and Williams up close. Gminski has a big man's appreciation for Williams. “I probably was more polished offensively, had better range,” he says. “Williams is a lot stronger, more athletic. His blocks are statements. He's telling opponents, ?You better think twice about coming in here.' He gives Duke's defense its swagger.”
Gminski agrees with Duke's decision to defer any jersey retirements until next season. “They're going through so much, so many distractions, why add one more?” he says. “I had a chance to talk to J.J. after he broke Dawkins' record and told him that someday you're going to be my age and you'll look back and relive these moments and it will all be good. This season has given people a chance to look back at my career and talk about me. It's been great.”
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