Share this … That was in 1999. And then Mike Krzyzewski came to town. Take a look at our list of Duke Blue Devils basketball players and vote for your favorites! Perhaps not. Grayson Allen (2014-18) Allen finished four points shy of being a 2,000-point scorer during his four … Many top college athletes played two, even three sports. Driesell and Valvano self-destructed. Janicki averaged 11.1 rebounds per game for Duke, third in school history. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. We … He selected Duke, the first player to select Mike Krzyzewski over Dean Smith. Of those, 27 have played this season. I’m going to take a slightly different tack, a bit more subjective, my (hopefully) informed opinion on this topic. He was a big baseball and basketball star at Swissvale High School, in the Pittsburgh suburbs. Jim On Duke’s Most Important All-Time Recruits (Part I). ACC; Big-Ten; MVC; SEC; Boston College; Clemson; By Jim Sumner Jul 11, 2019, 10:30am EDT Share this story. He is one of seven Duke players to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a full season. Duke’s best basketball player in the late 1940s was Ed Koffenberger, who also was a lacrosse All-American. Cook is 28th all-time on Duke's scoring list with 1571 points and 7th all-time in assists with 509. Ever heard of Ronnie Mayer? Many colleges have long traditions of NCAA basketball that breed great talent for the NBA. And Duke baseball was coached by Jack Coombs, the man for whom the stadium is named. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Wrong. We all know about his truncated college career. ACC. Mayer was first-team All-ACC in 1955. To be sure, Smith still won some recruiting battles against Krzyzewski, Eric Montross, Jerry Stackhouse and Vince Carter, for example. The school also boasts 14 academic All-Americans. Find the latest Duke Blue Devils news, football and basketball recruiting, schedule and recipe for dominating UNC, brought to you by Ball Durham A Duke Blue Devils Fan Site - … Duke fans are understandably giddy about Mike Krzyzewski's latest recruiting class. Duke probably didn’t think of Irving as an OAD when they started recruiting him. That’s A Different Story. His father Bob was an NBA player and GM and Danny grew up following the NBA not the college ranks. That was nothing unusual in the 1940s. Janicki was from Ambridge (Dick DeVenzio’s home town). As Nick Honor hits a spine-chilling clutch three to win the game. We present them here for purely educational purposes. A-East. But none could sustain it. Five years later Luol Deng made the same decision. H ere is a list of the best Duke Blue Devils of all time! CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Since Kyrie Irving Duke has been more than comfortable recruiting players they knew would not see their sophomore seasons. He always lost some priority targets, Tom McMillen, David Thompson, Ralph Sampson or Danny Manning, to name a few. Jim On Duke’s Most Important All-Time Recruits (Part I) Kyrie and Ferry and Groat - oh my! Groat knew he wanted to play both sports in college. Geoff Petrie, Princeton: The swingman was a three-time All-Ivy and two-time All-East selection. Corey Maggette was the first Blue Devil to go pro after his freshman season. Duke was surprised both times. Smith did not target Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie or Tommy Amaker, for example. Here are the top 10 all-time NFL players from Duke, as determined by NFL.com's Jim Reineking (follow on Twitter @jimreineking). Most weren’t. Duke has produced a total of 100 NBA Draft picks all-time. Dick Groat became the first National Player of the Year In 1952 from the Blue Devils squad. Recruiting was a lot different in the 1940s. Krzyzewski wasn’t going anywhere. All Time Top Recruits; Transfer Portal; BK Rec. Bill Foster (Duke), Terry Holland (Virginia), Bobby Cremins (Georgia Tech) and Jim Valvano (NC State) all successfully challenged Smith for ACC primacy. Such famous players as Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving, Grant Hill, Carlos Buzzer and Elton Brand used to wear Duke uniforms. Cremins came to the ACC a year after Krzyzewski but won an ACC title first, in 1985. He was the top prospect in the high-school class of 1985. As a senior in 1969-70 he averaged 22.3 points and … After eliminating such powers as Indiana and Virginia, Ferry narrowed his finalists to Maryland, North Carolina and Duke. Head coachMike Krzyzewskihas coached a total of 67 NBA Draft picks since taking over the Duke program in 1980-81. Duke All Time Basketball Recruits Since 2000 (75) Duke All Time Basketball Recruits. BK Recruiting Home; News Feed; Team Rankings; ... Duke All Time Baseball Recruits Since 2000 (0) Duke . Plus, 16 are not yet 25 years old, and 10 would have still been in college this past school year had they not left early. A-Sun. Duke Recruiting: Patrick Baldwin “75% Sure” Of His Decision, YouTube Gold: Nick Honor Has A Play For The Ages For Clemson. I once asked Bernie Janicki about this. Lefty Driesell’s Maryland Terrapins challenged State during those years. Say what you will about Dean Smith, the man had staying power. And they were okay with that. Big-12. That was never strictly true. These aren’t the six best players but rather six successful recruitments that changed the paradigm, that moved the needle, that helped make Duke basketball the program it is today. Within the span of eight days in mid-November, Coach K … Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Coaches recruited high schools and high-school coaches, not AAU and AAU coaches. I would also disagree with the Duhon inclusion as a walk-on as he also won a national title, is a top 50 scorer, and 2nd all-time in assists. Parks helped Duke to the 1992 NCAA Championship in minimal minutes alongside Bobby Hurley, … Some were surprises. And stayed some more. At 6’5”, Art Heyman was one of the most dangerous post players Duke has ever seen. Groat became Duke’s first great basketball player, the first time Duke had a player equal to the best player at Kentucky or Kansas or Indiana or any of the New York City schools. Rudy D’Emilio (Philadelphia) was Duke’s first first-team All-ACC selection, in 1954. But Krzyzewski did target Sam Perkins, Michael Jordan, Buzz Peterson, Steve Hale, Kenny Smith and Joe Wolf. But not the last. In fact their preference early on from that class was Floridian Brandon Knight, who would go on to Kentucky and a solid NBA career. Four of them were natives of Pennsylvania. Duke. Who were the most important recruits in Duke basketball history? Groat was so respected in his native state that he became a pied piper for Pennsylvanians to Duke. Surely they could get two out of Corey Maggette. Duke University is one of the most popular basketball programs in the USA. Carlson was famous for his deliberate “figure-eight” offense. A-10. The other six are Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins, Mike Lewis, Randy Denton, Mike Gminski and Marvin Bagley. But Krzyzewski won for Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Cherokee Parks and others. Duke basketball scores, news, schedule, players, stats, photos, rumors, depth charts on … Duke basketball has had a number of all-time players so the honorable mention is likely better than several other all-time starting lineups for several big-time programs. Danny Ferry was vivid proof of that. © 2005-2021 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. He told me that if Duke was good enough for Dick Groat, it was good enough for him. Since Irving Duke has had 16 OADs. Player … But none of those players were ranked in the top 10 of the Class of 2020, which meant, for the first time since 2012, Duke did not enroll a single top-10 prospect in advance of this season. Times were changing. Philly’s Joe Belmont was first team in 1956. Duke Blue Devils Basketball: 50 Greatest Players of All Time 0 of 51 Duke regained a … Dean Smith almost always had company at the top of the ACC. Eight different Blue Devils made All-ACC during the 1950s. He was from Avalon, Pa. Maybe more than okay. Pitt’s H.C. “Doc” Carlson was a very respected basketball coach, a hall-of-famer. Jim On Duke’s Most Important All-Time Recruits (Part II) Johnny D, Artie and Tinkerbell. Perhaps they come to Duke without Groat. Anthony Nash West Chester Bayard Rustin (West Chester, PA) Class of 2012 Pretty good company. No favorite college team to beat. Deng was on the three-and-gone program that had served Jason Williams so well. And stayed. Check out the best Duke point guards ever! Paul Schmidt (Johnstown) was second-team in 1958. When thinking of some of the best college basketball players of all time, the Duke Blue Devils are one of the best. Number of commitments only include the ones PG is notified or aware of. The ideal person to rank the 100 greatest Duke basketball players across the Mike Krzyzewski era is, well, Mike Krzyzewski — won’t happen. His competition did not. He got Pitt into the 1941 Final Four and even got a couple of those Helms national titles. It was said about Dean Smith-as it was said about Adolph Rupp, John Wooden and later Krzyzewski--that he didn’t recruit, he selected. The Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team represents Duke University in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Disclaimer: PG cannot 100% guarantee the accuracy of the verbal college commitments listed below. Norm Sloan and NC State went 57-1 over a two-year span, winning eight straight over the Tar Heels. I’m going to go with six important recruits. There have been 36 All-Americans so far from the duke system and 71 players have been drafted from Duke into the NBA. Counting transfers in or out of Durham along the way, 86 former Duke basketball stars have seen action in at least one NBA (or ABA) game ever since the league’s inception in 1946. Brad Daugherty was such a strong Tar Heel lean that Krzyzewski didn’t even bother. AAC. But Groat also wanted a basketball program that could showcase his skills. Keep in mind that Valvano came to State the same time Krzyzewski came to Duke and won an NCAA title when Duke was going 11-17. But he didn’t lose them to Krzyzewski, not at the beginning. But Irving leaped to the top of the heap during the summer of 2010. It was more regional, more recommendation based. By the time Kyrie Irving showed up on campus for the 2010-’11 season Duke expected Irving to go pro after one season. After all, this was a program that had gotten four years out of Johnny Dawkins, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner and Grant Hill. But it wasn’t just his skill. Duke Is Struggling This Year. So, as the Blue Devils gear up to try and make another run at a national title later this month, we decided to take a look back at The 20 Most-Hated Duke Players of All Time. The OP asked … Prince Avenue Christian School (Bogart, GA), Lamar County Comprehensive (Barnesville, GA), Heathwood Hall Episcopal School (Columbia, SC), Kingswood-Oxford School (West Hartford, CT), University Of Detroit Jesuit HS (Detroit, MI), Benedictine Military School (Savannah, GA), Grace Preparatory Academy (Arlington, TX), Baker County Senior (Glen Saint Mary, FL), West Chester Bayard Rustin (West Chester, PA), Victory Christian Center School (Charlotte, NC), Christian Brothers College (Saint Louis, MO). Groat was most effective in a running, fast-break offense. Duke has had at least one player taken in 33 of the 40 NBA Drafts in the Coach K era. But Krzyzewski publicly and privately supported his decision to go pro and word got out that Duke was a good place for top-tier talents looking for a one-year landing spot. The Blue Devils have had at least one player selected in 21 of the last 23 NBA Drafts. Ferry changed that. Family and friends warned Groat off Carlson and Pitt. Next Year? Duke is going to be very hard to deal with next season, ACC Roundup - What An Ending For The Tigers. The team is fourth all-time in wins of any NCAA men's basketball program, and is coached by Mike Krzyzewski. Former Duke Players Currently In The NBA * NBA stats from the 2020-2021 season. But even in that context Dick Groat was a big deal. Holland retired. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Foster and Sloan left for greener pastures.