Duke Blue Devils

The Duke Blue Devils are ready for the season to begin and they are ready to repeat as NCAA Champions.  With a team that sports only two seniors, Forward Kyle Singler and Guard Nolan Smith.  They are also the only returning starters from last season’s championship squad.  Head Coach Mike Krzyzweski plans on speeding up the tempo on his team this year.  That has mostly to do with the signing of Kyrie Irving and the transfer of Seth Curry.  “We’ll change our whole offense, the way we play because of Kyrie,” Krzyzewski told the New York Athletic Club in early May. “We’ll run a lot more and we’ll press. He’s fortunate to have Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler on the perimeter with him and the Plumlees. He’ll have good weapons with him.”

A SHORT HISTORY

The Duke Blue Devils will begin their 104th season of College Basketball which began in the 1906-07 season.   The then Trinity College won their first championship in 1920 against North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering.

A number of players have gone on to play in the National Basketball Association to include the following (but not all) players: Alaa Abdelnaby, Johnny Dawkins, Cherokee Parks, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, J.J. Redic, Shelden Williams and Corey Maggette.

The Blue Devils basketball team has won one NCAA Tournament four times (1991, 1992, 2001 and 2010) and six Tournament Runner ups (1964, 1978, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1999).  They have made it into the NCAA Final Four 15 times, the NCAA Elite Eight 18 times, and the NCAA Sweet Sixteen 25 times.  The team has made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament 34 times.