Second Dynasty
The 2001 title. Battier’s legacy. Brand, Boozer, Jay Williams, Deng.
William Avery
Augusta, Georgia. High school teammates with Ricky Moore — who beat him in the 1999 title game wearing a UConn jersey. One of the first to leave early under Coach K. 14th pick. Three NBA seasons. Eight countries. Then came back to Duke at age 40, graduated in 2023, and joined Scheyer’s coaching staff.
Shane Battier
The No-Stat All-Star. The soul of the 2001 champions.
Elton Brand
From Dunbar Heights to the #1 pick. From Peekskill’s favorite son to the 76ers’ front office. The quiet power forward who changed Duke’s recruiting model forever.
Ryan Caldbeck
A Shelburne, Vermont kid who arrived in Durham in fall 1997 to follow his older brother Justin's path to becoming a Duke basketball student manager — then, like Justin, was called by assistant coach Quinn Snyder right before his sophomore year and offered a chance to walk on. Cut down a piece of the net at the 2001 Final Four. Stanford MBA. Bain & Company, TSG, Encore Consumer Capital. Founded CircleUp in 2011, raised over $400M from Union Square Ventures, GV, TPG, Temasek, and others, transitioned to Chairman in 2020 in one of Silicon Valley's most publicly-transparent CEO mental-health departures, and is now founder and CEO of Waystation AI, building the AI intelligence layer for CPG procurement.
J.D. Simpson
The walk-on captain of the 2001 NCAA championship team.
D. Alvin Bryant
The dual-sport guard who became Duke's quarterback. The QB who became an educator.
Matt Christensen
The first LDS player at Duke. The CEO who learned discipline in Frankfurt.
Corey Maggette
One of Duke’s first one-and-dones.
Casey Sanders
The starting center of a national championship.
Carlos Boozer
Duke to the Dream Team.
Andy Borman
The astronaut's grandson, the coach's nephew, the walk-on who didn't quit.
Andre Buckner
The peacekeeper.
Mike Dunleavy Jr.
The coach’s son who carved his own path.
Jay Williams
The motorcycle accident that changed everything.
Chris Duhon
The four-year floor general.
Nick Horvath
1999 Minnesota Mr. Basketball who arrived at Duke from Mounds View High School in Arden Hills with a love of physics and English literature, played five years for Krzyzewski (overcoming chronic foot and ankle injuries), was a sophomore on the 2001 NCAA national championship team, was a tri-captain as a senior in 2003-04, and built one of the most extraordinary international basketball careers in Brotherhood history — winning Australia's NBL championship in 2009 and New Zealand's NZNBL championship in 2010 to become the first person ever to win an NCAA, ANBL, and NZNBL title; was named NZNBL MVP in 2012; played for the New Zealand Tall Blacks at the 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament; and is now a long-time physics teacher and head varsity basketball coach at Palmerston North Boys' High School in New Zealand — and a published novelist.
Dahntay Jones
The Rutgers transfer who became Duke’s best player. Defensive stopper. 624 NBA games, nine teams, fourteen seasons. Won a championship in Cleveland. LeBron paid his fines. Married in the Duke Chapel. Now coaching the Clippers.
Andy Means
An Indianapolis kid from Lawrence North High School — the Indiana basketball powerhouse that has produced Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., and Eric Gordon — who walked on at Duke as a freshman in fall 2001, played 17 games over two seasons for Krzyzewski, graduated in 2004, earned a Master's in Accounting from the Indiana Kelley School of Business, and built one of the most genuinely original post-Duke careers in the Brotherhood: he is now Premium Content Director for the RotoGrinders Network — overseeing daily fantasy sports content across RotoGrinders, ScoresAndOdds, and FantasyLabs — and a full-time DFS player who has qualified for multiple Live Finals.
Andre Sweet
The ring is real. So is the rest of the story.
Mark Causey
The 2001 Georgia 2A Player of the Year — a 6'3" wing scoring legend at little East Hall High School in Gainesville who once dropped 45 in a game, finished with 2,222 career points, and led the Vikings to a 30-2 record and the Class AA state championship as a senior. Walked on at Duke for the 2001-02 season, played 12 games for Krzyzewski, transferred home to North Georgia in fall 2002, became a Saint, then a dental student, then an orthodontist. Today he is Dr. Mark Causey, board-certified orthodontist, dentist for the Atlanta Falcons, faculty at the Augusta University Dental College of Georgia, and lecturer at the Charles H. Tweed International Foundation — practicing in his hometown of Gainesville, GA, where he is raising his four children in the same Hall County community he grew up in.
Daniel Ewing
TJ Ford's Willowridge running mate, four-year Blue Devil, ACC Tournament MVP, two-time captain alongside JJ Redick — a winner's winner who turned a 12-country, 12-year passport into one of the more interesting second acts in Duke basketball: scout for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Reggie Love
The two-sport star from Charlotte who walked on to the basketball team, won a national championship as a freshman, led the football team in receptions, and then became the personal aide to the President of the United States — the man Barack Obama called his ‘little brother.’
Michael Thompson
A McDonald's All-American center from Joliet, Illinois — one of FOUR McDonald's All-Americans in Krzyzewski's celebrated recruiting class of 2002 alongside Chris Duhon, J.J. Redick, and Shelden Williams. Played in the 2003 Sweet Sixteen and the 2003-04 Great Alaska Shootout before transferring home to Northwestern in December 2003. He stayed two-plus seasons at Northwestern, was heralded by the Inside NU community as 'the only 5-star recruit in Northwestern basketball history,' but his playing career was, by their own subsequent reporting, ended early by 'an irregular heartbeat.' He stayed on scholarship and graduated.
Patrick Johnson
An Atlanta walk-on whose father — a Duke '78 alumnus — was killed by a drunk driver when Patrick was seven, two months after the two of them watched UNLV destroy Duke 103-73 in the 1990 NCAA Championship game. He grew six inches between his sophomore knee surgery and his senior year at Grady High, never played a minute of high-school basketball, walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium as a Duke sophomore in fall 2002 thinking he was good enough anyway — and four years later left Durham with a scholarship, a 2004 Final Four banner, the famous Wake Forest walk-on starting assignment, and an .833 career field-goal percentage. Today he is the Athletic Director at Pacific High School in San Bernardino, California.
Shavlik Randolph
The most coveted recruit in North Carolina since David Thompson — a McDonald’s All-American who broke Pete Maravich’s records at Broughton, whose NC State grandfather was a first-round NBA pick, whose body betrayed him at Duke, who scored 55 points in a single game in China, and who lost his brother but never lost his faith.
Luol Deng
From Sudanese refugee to NBA All-Star.
Joe Pagliuca
Founding leg of the Pagliuca-to-Duke pipeline. The four-year walk-on guard from Belmont Hill, son of Bain Capital's then-managing-partner-and-future-co-chairman Stephen Pagliuca '77, brother to Stephanie '13 and Nick '17. Earned the program's top scholar-athlete award and the Coach's Award; now Co-Founder & President of Boston-based Parquet Capital, the alternative-investment firm whose name is itself a tribute to the Boston Celtics' parquet floor.