Duke basketball: The six programs with perfect records against Blue Devils
By Matt Giles
Undefeated versus the Duke basketball program: Wagner
6. Wagner
Current conference: Northeast Conference
All-time winning percentage: 48.2 (665-715)
NCAA Tournament record: 0-1
Record against Duke: 1-0
- Jan. 5, 1983, regular season, Cameron Indoor Stadium (Durham, N.C.): Wagner 84, Duke 77
The 1982-83 Wagner team (10-18 by season’s end) is among the worst to ever beat a Duke squad. And the Seahawks pulled off the upset in Durham against a crop of highly touted freshmen; granted, those youngins would finish their first year as Blue Devils with an 11-17 mark.
Bob Mahala, then a senior guard who poured in 25 points for Wagner while giving prized Duke rookie Johnny Dawkins fits all night on the other end, joined his teammates in carrying first-year head coach Neil Kennett off of what would eventually become Coach K Court. Per Cormac Gordon of SI Live, Mike Krzyzewski, in his third season leading the Blue Devils at the time of the loss, said the following to Kennett when they crossed paths in 2003:
“I remember you very well. Because of you, I never took an opponent lightly again.”
Understandably, though, Coach K also never scheduled the Seahawks again.