It's been 35 years.
UNLV came awfully close to running the table two decades ago, but Duke knocked off Jerry Tarkanian's Running Rebels in the Final Four.
We're just about two months into the college hoops campaign and five teams remain without a blemish, including the reigning champs at Duke.
What's more, the ACC is down and the Blue Devils may not play another ranked team until they go dancing. It's all set up for the Dukies to tear through opponents, especially with Tobacco Road rival North Carolina still looking more the part of an NIT team than a Final Four contender.
So 20 years after they derailed the last serious attempt at a perfect season, could Duke succeed where UNLV failed?
Nope.
The Blue Devils won't pull off the improbable, the unthinkable.
Neither will any of the four other unbeatens. It won't happen this year. It may never happen again.
Even if star frosh Kyrie Irving does return to the court, Duke simply isn't dominating enough to pull of perfection. Just watch tape of the Maryland game Sunday night, in which the Terps gave the Blue Devils fits and pushed them to the brink in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
You want dominating?
How about Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers team back in 1975-76, which reeled off 32 victories without a loss, won the national title and was the last squad to go through the entire year with impunity.
That team had it all.
Experience, with four seniors and one junior in the starting lineup.
They had seniors Quinn Buckner and Bobby Wilkerson in the backcourt, senior forwards Scott May and Tom Abernathy and junior big man Kent Benson.
No shortage of pros as three players -- May (second), Buckner (seventh) and Wilkerson (11th) wound up being selected in the first 11 picks of the 1976 NBA Draft and Kent Benson, the junior in the group, was the top overall pick the next season. Abernathy was a third-rounder and spent five seasons in the NBA.
They were loaded.
"The times have changed and the paradigm has shifted," said Buckner, the starting point guard on the 1976 national championship squad. "It's different now."
Duke is the consensus pick to cut down the nets come April -- especially if Irving, a likely lottery pick and arguably the best point guard in America, returns from a toe injury that has put his freshman season in jeopardy.
It's not an overwhelming Blue Devils team though.
Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith are both wonderful college basketball players, but they aren't expected to be much more than role guys at the next level. Irving could be a star, but again, his future is still in flux and right now he's a fixture on the sidelines.
The Blue Devils have a nice team, but don't have an interior presence and are vulnerable defensively. And while Smith has done a more-than-admirable job moving back to the point guard spot, this is a team that could get knocked out on the first weekend of the NCAA tourney without Irving.
I picked Ohio State to win it all prior to the season and am as high on the Buckeyes as anyone, but this team isn't going through the Big Ten regular-season without a loss.
They, too, aren't exactly loaded with guys the NBA is standing in line to welcome to the league.
Kansas has been fortunate just to remain undefeated after near-losses to a trio of unranked teams: UCLA, USC and Michigan.
Two of those even came at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
Bill Self may have more pro-level talent than anyone else in the land right now with Josh Selby, the Morris Twins (Marcus and Markieff) and even guys like Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson, but this Jayhawks team couldn't hold a candle to Knight's Hoosiers -- or even Tark's Running Rebs.
The Jayhawks don't have the leadership to run the table in the Big 12, let alone in the postseason.
We're in a different era, one in which guys like Singler and Smith -- both seniors -- wouldn't still be in college if they were talented enough to be taken in the NBA draft lottery.
The same could be said for Marcus Morris, who would have bolted Lawrence after last season if he were considered a top-15 selection.
The landscape now is one where most kids opt for exposure and the instant gratification of playing time over the opportunity to wait their turn at a program that can win a national championship.
"Guys can be seen on TV anywhere now," Buckner said. "That wasn't the case back when I played."
The distractions, whether it be from agents and runners or from the media attention that comes with the Internet age, have made it far more difficult to focus on the task at hand.
Duke, Ohio State and Kansas are considered the elite three teams in the nation this season, but there are two more still unbeatens: Syracuse and San Diego State.
Jim Boeheim's Orange have been a pleasant surprise thus far, but still have yet to venture outside New York and New Jersey and will be fortunate to get through the Big East slate without a handful of setbacks.
Then there's Steve Fisher's San Diego State team, which went to Spokane and took care of Gonzaga. The Aztecs also held court at home against Saint Mary's and Wichita State, but they may not even win the Mountain West with stiff competition from BYU, UNLV and New Mexico. ahead
Buckner still pays close attention to the college game, even calling games for the Big Ten Network. He follows Duke closely, largely because Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski was a graduate assistant back when he played at IU.
"It's a very different era," Bucker said. "It's doable, but I just don't know when."
It won't be this year. That I can assure you.
