As the head coach basketball coach at Duke University from 1959-69, he was widely credited with pioneering the art of recruiting college basketball players. Bubas took three of his Duke teams to the Final Four (1962-63, 63-64, 65-66) and won four Atlantic Coast Conference championships. A former chairman of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Bubas was selected as the first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference in 1976 and served for 14 years.