An outstanding rebounder, Denton had a solid ABA career in the early to mid ‘70’s.
It’s hard to overstate how glamorous the Vic Bubas era was at the time. Guys like Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins, Jay Buckley, Steve Vacendak, Bob Verga, Jack Marin...those guys were really good.
But the Bubas era slowed down after 1966 and the great players were less common. One of his last really good players was Randy Denton.
A 6-10 native of Raleigh, young Denton bore a certain resemblance to actor John C. Reilly. He remains the highest per game average rebounder at Duke with 12.7 per game.
Denton had a decent career in the ABA, averaging 11.5 points and 8.6 boards. He finished up with a couple of seasons overseas with Italian team Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino.
He played for Bubas for one year as a varsity player then for Bucky Waters for the rest of his Duke career.
This video has some rare ABA footage of Denton’s time with the St. Louis Spirit. That must have been a bizarre experience. Marvin Barnes was entirely insane, Maurice Lucas was a world-class enforcer and young Moses Malone was on his way to one of the great careers in basketball history. You had to be pretty special to carve out a role with that group.
