Education
Bubas graduated from Gary Lew Wallace High School in 1944. After he graduated in 1951 he stayed on as a freshman coach until 1955 and as a varsity assistant coach until he was hired by Duke University in 1959.
Bubas graduated from Gary Lew Wallace High School in 1944. After he graduated in 1951 he stayed on as a freshman coach until 1955 and as a varsity assistant coach until he was hired by Duke University in 1959.
After finishing high school he enrolled at the University of Illinois, playing the 1944-1945 season for the Fighting Illini. He then went on to North Carolina State University where he played for Everett Case. Bubas was an All-Southern Conference selection twice.
During the 1960s Bubas expanded Duke University"s basketball program
Recruiting Bubas is widely credited with pioneering the art of recruiting by targeting players very early and gathering information on them before other coaches had learned of them and would send newspaper clippings of Duke games to prospects. As North Carolina legendary coach Dean Smith once stated, "Vic taught us all how to recruit, we had been starting on prospects in the fall of their senior years while Vic was working on them their junior year.
Foreign a while, all of us were trying to catch up with him." Bubas"s tireless efforts paid off as he brought in future All-Americans from all over the country. Heyman was originally set to attend North Carolina but a near fight between Heyman"s stepfather and University of North Carolina head coach Frank McGuire (McGuire took it personally when Heyman"s stepfather referred to his program as "a factory") sent Heyman on a different path and Bubas stepped in and was able to convince Heyman to attend Duke.
Another big coup was getting Lexington, Kentucky native and eventual two-time All-American Jeff Mullins from the University of Kentucky and legendary Adolph Rupp.
Paired together, Heyman and Mullins formed a devastating duo. Performance 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.
In 2007 Bubas was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
He took it from a successful regional program that won a lot of games to a national program His first big coup was getting eventual National Player Of The Year Art Heyman to go to Duke. Freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity and only the winner of the Administrative Committee on Company-ordination Tournament could go to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. Duke received the automatic bid in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, where the Blue Devils won two games before losing to 12th-ranked New York University. His teams finished first in league play on four occasions and won four Administrative Committee on Company-ordination championships, competing in the Administrative Committee on Company-ordination 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.