Between Crowns
The longest title drought of the K era. The players who kept Duke in the conversation.
Sean Dockery
Chicago point guard who held Illinois's career assists and steals records, who hit a 45-footer at the Cameron buzzer to beat Virginia Tech, and who now runs the DBA Blue Devils — a youth basketball academy in San Antonio named after the team that made him.
Lee Melchionni
A second-generation Duke guard from the most basketball-credentialed family in Pennsylvania — clutch left-handed three-point shooter on Sweet 16 and Final Four teams from 2002 to 2006, now an Atlanta-based attorney and litigation finance entrepreneur.
Ross Perkins
A Greensboro walk-on from a five-generation Duke family who served two years as a student manager before joining the team — and who, when Coach K offered him a starting spot in an important ACC game, walked into the office and gave it back.
JJ Redick
The most hated player in America. Now he coaches the Lakers.
Shelden Williams
The Landlord.
Jordan Davidson
A Batesville, Arkansas multi-sport athlete — silver-medal state golfer plus all-state basketball player at little Melbourne High in the Ozarks — who followed his older brother Patrick to Duke as a walk-on point guard, earned a scholarship after two years, redshirted his senior season after back surgery, came back for a fifth year as a Fuqua Master's student, and was named in U.S. House Resolution 1242 as one of the four senior leaders on Krzyzewski's 2010 NCAA national championship team.
Tom Novick
Charlotte walk-on who took the long road to Duke through Charlotte Catholic and a NEPSAC prep year at Brewster Academy, played three quiet years for Krzyzewski, and built one of the program's most quietly accomplished post-Duke careers — Wall Street, a Kellogg MBA with Distinction, Bain & Company, and now an SVP at the public company Custom Truck One Source.
David McClure
Six surgeries. Still climbing.
DeMarcus Nelson
California’s all-time leading scorer (3,462 points). Pastor’s son from Oakland. Grew up an Arizona fan who didn’t like Duke until they showed him a Jay Williams video. Stayed all four years. ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Sole captain. Undrafted — then became the first undrafted rookie to start on NBA opening night in history. EuroLeague MVP. French Finals MVP. Vallejo retired his jersey — the first in 150 years.
Eric Boateng
A Tooting-born British-Ghanaian center who came up at the legendary Brixton Topcats alongside Luol Deng's path, prep-schooled in Delaware, played one season at Duke before transferring to Arizona State (where he tied the Pac-10 record for a perfect 11-of-11 conference shooting night), represented Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games — and who today, having retired and been twice elected to the British Olympic Association's Athletes' Commission, runs the same Brixton Topcats club where he learned the game as a child.
Jamal Boykin
An LA prep star named after Jamaal Wilkes who was the 2005 Gatorade State Player of the Year in California, who lived out a 1992-Laettner-pass childhood dream by signing with Duke, who lost a year-and-a-half to mononucleosis and the practice court, who transferred home to Cal — and who, in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, led the Golden Bears with 13 points and 11 rebounds against his old Duke team in the Sweet Sixteen.
Josh McRoberts
Flair, flash, and an early exit.
Greg Paulus
Born in Ohio, raised in Wisconsin, made in Syracuse. The nation’s best QB AND best PG simultaneously. Beat Ray Rice in a state football championship. Gatorade National Athlete of the Year. Chose Duke basketball. Won four ACC titles. Then went back to Syracuse and started at quarterback without playing football in four years. Head coach at Niagara. Two Halls of Fame. There will never be another.
Martynas Pocius
A Vilnius-born wing who lost part of a finger at thirteen, prep-schooled at Holderness, fought injuries through four years at Duke, won Spanish and Lithuanian league titles, took a 2010 FIBA World Championship bronze medal for Lithuania — and now, after eight years in the Denver Nuggets front office and a 2023 NBA Championship ring, is the Deputy General Manager of Real Madrid Basketball.
Gerald Henderson
The spark that reignited the engine.
Steve Johnson
A Colorado Springs walk-on who joined the Duke roster in October 2006, sat out a redshirt year, earned a scholarship in 2008, ran the high jump on the Duke track-and-field team, walked off Cameron's home floor in April 2010 with a 2010 NCAA national championship — and is now a Senior Portfolio Manager at SVB Asset Management in Boston, holder of a Duke economics undergrad degree and a Duke Fuqua MBA.
Jon Scheyer
The Jewish Jordan from Northbrook. Scored 21 points in 75 seconds. Disliked Duke as a kid because all his friends liked Duke. Chose Duke anyway. Played every game for four years. 2010 National Champion. Recruited Zion, Tatum, Barrett, Banchero, and Cooper Flagg. Named the 20th head coach in Duke history. 2025 Final Four. National Coach of the Year. The kid who said “We’ll just do it here” is doing it here. And the Brotherhood continues.
Nick Sutton
A Marin County kid named Nicholas Sutton III who came up through the Branson School and a post-graduate year at Lawrenceville, walked on as a freshman in fall 2006, and turned a one-game basketball career into the best possible Krzyzewski-program education for the energy-finance career he has built since — across Lithos Resources, Lineage Oil, Legacy Reserves, and now Revenir Energy.
Lance Thomas
A Brooklyn kid raised by a single mom who played for Danny Hurley, won a national championship as co-captain, went undrafted, clawed his way to nine NBA seasons and $24 million, captained the Knicks — and then traded the hardwood for the open water as a licensed sea captain and competitive deep-sea fisherman.
Brian Zoubek
The 7-foot-1 son of Princeton and Wellesley athletes who broke his foot twice, opened a cream puff bakery, grabbed the rebound that won a national championship, and now builds apartment buildings across Philadelphia.
Taylor King
A Mater Dei prodigy who arrived at Duke in 2007 as the fourth-leading scorer in California high school history and a McDonald's All-American, posted the fifth-highest scoring debut in Duke history, transferred after a difficult one-year chapter, and — after a long passage through Villanova, Concordia, the British Basketball League, the Iraqi Champions Cup, the LA Clippers G-League, and a documented battle with substance use — returned home to Southern California, sober, married, and coaching the next generation at JSerra Catholic High School.
Nolan Smith
His father won the 1980 championship with Louisville, outscored Michael Jordan, played nine NBA years, and died on a cruise ship near Bermuda when Nolan was eight. Uncle Johnny Dawkins raised him in basketball. Michael Beasley moved in as a brother. He looked at the ceiling in every arena for his father. Won the 2010 title in Indianapolis — same city as his father in 1980. ACC Player of the Year. Tattoo: Forever Watching. Now head coach at Tennessee State.
Olek Czyz
A Polish-born teen who moved to Reno at fourteen, won two Nevada state championships at Reno High, walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium recruited by the most famous Polish-American basketball coach in history — and walked back out a year and a half later, three months before Duke won the 2010 national championship. Now the head coach at Galena High School in Reno, where he is in his fifth season teaching the game to the next generation of Northern Nevada kids.
Elliot Williams
A McDonald's All-American left-handed combo guard who transferred home to Memphis to be near his dying mother, became a first-round pick, then watched his NBA career be carved away by three catastrophic injuries — and kept getting back up because his mom was still watching.