Resurgence + Title
The 2010 and 2015 championships. Coach K’s 4th and 5th rings.
Casey Peters
Two years as a student manager. Two years as a player. One national championship in between. The walk-on who turned down Yale, perfect-800-on-the-math-SAT'd his way through Duke, and now runs a private equity firm with $1.75 billion under management.
Kyle Singler
Four years. 148 games. The kid from Medford who stayed, won a championship, and built a tournament that outlasted his career.
Seth Curry
The other Curry.
Miles Plumlee
The first Plumlee. The one whose feet broke the ink pad. The trailblazer who went across the mountains so his brothers would know the way.
Andre Dawkins
The purest shooter on a championship team — and the hardest story in the Brotherhood.
Ryan Kelly
The Ivy League kid who won a national championship, married a Cowher, played for the Lakers, and found his best basketball in Japan.
Mason Plumlee
Three brothers. Seven seasons. One driveway hoop in Warsaw. All three won championships at Duke. The ink pad was too small for the first son’s feet.
Todd Zafirovski
Son of a Macedonian-American CEO who arrived in Cleveland with $1,500 and no English. Walk-on. 2010 NCAA Champion. Now launching cities for Uber, then selling at ACP CreativIT — and still on the Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center orbit.
Josh Hairston
Four years, 121 games, 26 charges taken. The UNC fan from Fredericksburg who chose Duke, did the dirty work nobody else wanted, played alongside four future NBA All-Stars, then circled the globe before becoming an agent at Klutch Sports.
Kyrie Irving
Born in Melbourne. Lost his mother at four. Eleven games at Duke. The Shot over Curry. Little Mountain is still climbing.
Tyler Thornton
The DC kid recruited as Duke's insurance plan for Kyrie Irving — and stayed for four years anyway. The 6'2" defensive specialist who never averaged more than 3.7 points a game and yet, in the most important regular-season Duke vs. North Carolina game of his junior year, drew this Coach K quote: "I think the hero for us this game was Thornton. He would not let us lose." A four-year letterwinner, two-time ACC Tournament champion, 2013-14 captain in Jon Scheyer's first season on Duke's coaching staff, the player on the floor when Kevin Ware suffered the most infamous leg injury in NCAA Tournament history — and the assistant coach Scheyer hired back to Duke in May 2025.
Quinn Cook
Four years. One ring. Two more in the NBA.
Michael Gbinije
Silent G. The Virginia state champion who committed to Coach K, barely played, transferred to the school Duke's fans hate most, became a 2016 Final Four star for Jim Boeheim, got drafted by Detroit, played for the Nigerian national team at the Rio Olympics — and is now coaching the next generation in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Sean Kelly
Younger brother of Ryan Kelly, son of the Ravenscroft Head of School. Played baseball, not basketball, in high school. Three years as a Duke student manager, then walked on as a senior — and was on the bench going bananas with Nick Pagliuca during the 2015 NCAA Championship Final Four.
Austin Rivers
Doc’s son. The Shot at Carolina. The kid who spent 707 games and eleven years proving he was more than a last name.
Rodney Hood
Both parents played at Mississippi State. Childhood neighbor: Paramore’s Hayley Williams. Two-time Mississippi Gatorade POY. State champion. Coach K’s fourth-ever transfer. Brought chitterlings to Duke from Thanksgiving in Meridian. Left-handed stroke as smooth as anything in the ACC. 23rd pick. Eight NBA seasons. Ruptured his Achilles chasing a dream. Married a Duke women’s basketball player. Retired November 2024. The Deep South never left him.
Amile Jefferson
The Philadelphia kid who was the last big recruit of 2012 to commit, the patient five-year Blue Devil who broke his right foot in practice, took a medical redshirt, and came back to captain the Tatum-Giles freshman class. A 2015 NCAA champion as a player, a 2024 NBA champion as a Boston Celtics assistant coach, and the only player in Duke history to be named to the All-ACC Academic Team four times.
Alex Murphy
The first Duke recruit to skip his high school senior year for Durham — a Finnish-American forward from a basketball family who left home early, transferred twice, fought through a foot that cost him 18 months, and built a global career across three continents.
Marshall Plumlee
The youngest brother. NCAA champion. 29 NBA games. Then he became a Ranger, deployed to Afghanistan, and went to Harvard Business School.
Rasheed Sulaimon
Texas-born McDonald's All-American whose three Duke seasons ended in the program's first non-academic dismissal under Krzyzewski — and who has since built a decade-long professional career across six countries.
Semi Ojeleye
Parade National Player of the Year. 23 games at Duke. AAC Player of the Year at SMU. NBA playoff warrior. European champion.
Nick Pagliuca
Son of the former Bain Capital co-chair and former Boston Celtics co-owner. National Merit Scholar at Milton Academy. Brother of an earlier Duke walk-on. Walked on, played one minute in the 2015 Final Four, and won a national championship. Now at Palantir after Harvard Business School.
Jabari Parker
The kid from the church gym. Sports Illustrated cover. Four state titles. Two torn ACLs. Tears of gratitude in Barcelona.
Grayson Allen
The hero. The villain. The shooter. Four years at Duke, 1,996 points, a national championship, three trips, and a $70 million redemption arc.
Tyus Jones
Hit the biggest shot of 2015.
Jahlil Okafor
One year. One ring. Then the NBA broke him.
Justise Winslow
The glue of the 2015 title team.