Bubas Surrounded Himself With Excellent Coaches

March 6, 2005

Blue Devil Weekly

"I just wanted assistant coaches with some enthusiasm, who could teach." Five men fit those requirements during Vic Bubas' 10 years as head coach at Duke. All five would later become successful head coaches. Two, Chuck Daly and Hubie Brown, would be outstanding pro coaches. Fred Shabel, Tom Carmody, and Bucky Waters, along with Daly, were successful college coaches.

From the very beginning Bubas told Everett Case, his coach at North Carolina State, that he wanted to be a head basketball coach at the college level and that he wanted Case to help him reach that goal. After finishing his playing career in 1950, Bubas took over the State freshman team. He also helped with varsity practices. Bubas remembers "getting into my office at 8:00 or 8:30, working on administrative stuff, making phone calls, going over scouting reports and that sort of thing. Varsity practice was 4:00 until 6:00 and the freshmen practiced from 7:00 until 9:00. It was a full day but I didn't mind a bit. I was learning every day, soaking up knowledge from one of the best coaches in the country. I wanted that kind of dedication from my assistants."

Bubas became head coach at Duke in the spring of 1959, replacing Harold Bradley, who had just taken the head job at Texas. He inherited assistants Fred Shabel and Whit Cobb. Shabel says, "Eddie Cameron (the Duke athletic director) told Vic that I was a Duke guy and they were going to take care of me. He had to keep me for one year. If that didn't work out, he could make his own decision but I had to have a year."

Bubas had no problem with the arrangement. Shabel had played at Duke, graduating in 1954, the same year as Lefty Driesell. Shabel had no ambitions to coach when he left but Duke but his interest was rekindled in the Air Force. Bradley's assistant Tony Drago left Duke after the 1957 season. About the same time, Duke was allowed to add a second assistant. Shabel and Cobb were hired for the 1958 season.

Bubas found Shabel to be invaluable. "Inheriting Fred was one of the best things that ever happened to me," he said. "Fred knew Duke, especially the academic rigors. He had played for Duke, he had coached for Duke. He knew the landscape. He knew when to back off, when to pile it on."

Cobb had applied for Bradley's job. When he didn't get it, he rethought his career plans and left coaching for business. "We had to find a coach during the summer, which isn't the best time to be looking," Bubas recalled. He decided to give the job to 23-year-old Raymond "Bucky" Waters. Bubas had coached Waters at State.

Like Bubas, Waters was another one of those guys who always wanted to coach. After graduating from State in 1958, Waters decided that his college ambitions would be enhanced by getting a Master's Degree. He enrolled at Appalachian State and took a job coaching at Ashe Central High School. Waters managed the difficult task of going to school and coaching, taking Ashe Central into the state playoffs.

Bubas says Waters "had a good mind for basketball, knew recruiting, how to teach. Having played at State, Bucky brought the perspective of how a big program worked and what it took to win at the highest levels."

"There were some people at Duke who weren't happy about that," Waters notes. "Some of the academics looked down at North Carolina State. Cameron had hired a State man and now that State man had hired another State man. It took some courage for Vic to make the hire.

"Vic knew that he had hired a hard worker," Waters added. "I was married while I was at State and took a job at a local car wash, working on Saturdays before games. He knew I wasn't afraid to work.

"And he wanted some young legs for recruiting," Waters laughed.

Bubas was a master delegator. Case had given him responsibility and he followed that example. "If a head coach does all the talking, players get tired of hearing him," Bubas explained. "Using your assistants is healthy for everybody. The assistants learn, the players learn. If you are successful, your assistants rightfully have a sense of pride in what you've accomplished."

Waters concurs. "Vic gave responsibility and accountability to his assistants," he said. "He would tell us to ask if we needed help but if we didn't ask, we were on our own. He would tell us to scout a team and tell us how to beat it, design a play and teach it. You always felt empowered. It was a great learning experience."

Bubas' assistants became hot commodities. Shabel flirted with taking the Rutgers job in 1963 but backed off. Then Connecticut came calling. "I can't overstate how helpful Vic was," Shabel noted. "He sat down with me and went over the pros and cons. He even offered to fly up to Connecticut on his own money and talk to the people there if that would help. Lots of head coaches want their assistants to stay with them forever. Vic would do anything in his power to help his assistants move up."

Bubas declines to talk about this subject, saying only, "I didn't do anything any other head coach wouldn't have done."

Shabel took the Connecticut job. Ironically, his team met Duke in the 1964 Eastern Regional final, with Duke winning 101-54. Bubas opened a national search for Shabel's replacement. As with Waters, he decided on a high school coach. "I valued teaching ability. Good high school coaches were the best teachers, better than most college coaches. You can't recruit in high school. You take what shows up, teach, adapt, and mold them as best you can."

Chuck Daly was the replacement. Daly was a successful coach in Punxsutawney, Pa., home of the famous groundhog. Bubas says that Daly "was an exceptional communicator, with the passion to go along with it. You can analyze all you want but you've got to be able to communicate that analysis. No one did that better than Daly."

Waters left Duke after the 1965 season. Not only was Bubas not concerned with this trend, he was pleased by it. "I wanted to hire coaches with a future and I wanted Duke to win games. I figured if those two things happened, other schools would come calling. I expected it and I thought it was a compliment to our program."

Waters went to West Virginia. He had more success than did Shabel in his first meeting against his mentor, beating beat Duke 94-90, knocking the Devils out of the top spot in the national rankings. Waters took West Virginia to the 1967 NCAA Tournament.

Waters was replaced by another high school coach, Tom Carmody, who "was very impressive in the interview, a very sharp basketball mind." Carmody stayed three years before taking the head job at Rhode Island, where he coached for five seasons before going into business.

Carmody was replaced by Hubie Brown, "as good a clinician as anyone who has ever coached this game," according to Bubas. Brown would stay at Duke through 1972 before moving on to a distinguished career in the pros, on the sideline as well as in the television booth.

Speaking of distinguished pro coaches, Daly left Duke after 1969 to go to Boston College. After two seasons there he was hired as head coach at Pennsylvania. The man who hired him was Pennsylvania athletic director Fred Shabel, who had gone into administration. Before leaving for the NBA, Daly brought his Penn team down to Durham in December 1971 to face Waters and Duke. Penn won 50-49 in overtime.

Shabel, now vice-chairman of Comcast/Spectator, says, "I know it's a cliche but Vic really was a master CEO. The best CEOs surround themselves with the best people and let them do their jobs. No one ever did that better than Vic Bubas."

Bubas Surrounded Himself With Excellent Coaches

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