YouTube Gold: Gene Banks Says Goodbye To Cameron With A Huge Win Over UNC

Nothing could be finer

We don’t do this all that often, at least not intentionally, but some bits of Duke history are worth linking to more than once for a daily dose of YouTube Gold.

For instance, our guess is that none of you guys mind seeing The Shot occasionally, right? Austin River’s legendary three against UNC? Grant Hill’s amazing dunk against Kansas? Zion Williamson’s mind-boggling block at Virginia?

It reminds us of a story about a kid who was a Marquette fan and after the Warriors, as they were then known, won the national championship in 1977, threw his TV out the window. He said he’d never see anything as beautiful as that, so he didn’t need a TV anymore.

He has YouTube now, so he can probably watch it whenever he wants to, which brings us back to the point of this meandering intro.

In 1980-81, the last major players of the Bill Foster era were winding down under a new coach that no one understood and with a name that no one could quite spell. He said not to worry about it; just call him Coach K.

And the final home game against UNC for Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard was the first for Mike Krzyzewski.

The game was almost over when Duke called timeout down just two. Coach K designed a play that would have someone else take the final shot. Dennard later said he looked at Banks and they both understood they wouldn’t be doing that.

So Dennard tossed the ball into Banks who hit a shot over the long arm of Sam Perkins. Coach K didn’t seem too perturbed about being disregarded.

Duke ended up winning in overtime, 66-65.

Keep an eye out because there’s a cameo of a guy who is a dead ringer for Warden Norton from Shawshank Redemption.

As a bonus, we thought it would be nice to see one of Banks’s greatest plays, and perhaps the greatest dunk in Duke history as he takes it to the rack against 7-4 Ralph Sampson. This really took some nerve to do. Someone should really do a definitive story about Banks’s impact on Duke Basketball because he is one of the key figures in the history of the program.