Shane Battier entered his senior season as the remaining member of Duke's heralded recruiting class of 1997 which included Elton Brand and William Avery and had nearly led Duke to a championship two years earlier. (Brand and Avery, along with Corey Maggette would become the first Duke underclassmen to leave early for the draft that year.) Despite losing the reigning ACC Player of the YearChris Carrawell to graduation, the Blue Devils still retained sophomores Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Carlos Boozer and welcomed the addition of freshman Chris Duhon to their lineup.
Regular season
On January 27, 2001, the #2 Duke Blue Devils played at #8 Maryland Terrapins in what would become the first of four contests between these two ACC powerhouses. With Duke trailing by 10 points, with 54 seconds left in regulation, Williams scored eight points. These points included two 3 pointers in a 13-second span. James hit two free throws to send this game into overtime. In overtime, Battier blocked a layup by Juan Dixon at the baseline with 4 seconds left to preserve a 98 to 96 victory.[2]
However, the Blue Devils stumbled in the next game at home against their rival, 4th ranked North Carolina by a score of 85 to 83.[3] A month later, Maryland would avenge their home loss to Duke when the No. 16 Terrapins defeated the No. 2 Blue Devils 91 to 80 on Shane Battier's Senior Night in Cameron Indoor Stadium. After center Carlos Boozer had to leave with a foot injury in that game,[4] Coach Krzyzewski decided to change his strategy, favoring a smaller, quicker lineup by having Duhon start at point guard and moving Williams over to shooting guard. His plan was successful in Duke's next game at North Carolina, when Duke defeated the No. 4 Tar Heels 95 to 81 to claim a share of the regular season championship.[5] The Blue Devils went on to win 6 of its games following Boozer's injury. Then Boozer rejoined the team in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
Conference tournament
Duke finished the regular season with a 26–4 record entering the ACC tournament as a No. 2 seed. In the tournament semifinals, they met Maryland for the third time this season. In another thrilling contest, after Maryland had rallied from a 14-point, second-half deficit, the Blue Devils defeated the Terrapins 84 to 82 when Nate James tipped in the game-winner with 1.3 seconds left[6] to advance to the title game against North Carolina. In the third game between Duke and UNC that season, the Blue Devils emerged victorious as ACC tournament champions by the score of 79 to 53[7] and received a No. 1 seed in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament.
NCAA tournament
The Blue Devils would travel the same path they took nine years ago when they claimed their last championship in 1992, from Greensboro to Philadelphia to Minneapolis, where they met Maryland for the fourth time that season, this time in the Final Four with a berth in the championship game at stake. Finding themselves down 39 to 17 with 6:57 to play in the first half and down 49 to 38 at Halftime, Duke went on to stage a comeback against the Terrapins and win 95–84 to advance to the championship game. Duke's 22-point deficit and 11-point Halftime deficit marked the largest comeback in Final Four history until 2022, when Kansas overcame a 15-point halftime deficit to defeat North Carolina in the National Championship Game.[8]
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings ^Coaches did not release a week 2 poll
Accomplishments
3rd national championship in school history (1991, 1992, 2001)
2nd appearance in national championship game in three years (1999, 2001)
3rd straight No. 1-ranking in final regular season AP poll, and 1st No. 1-ranked team to win the national championship since UCLA in 1995.
Duke set an NCAA record by winning its 133rd game over a four-year period. The Blue Devils (133–15) broke the record set by Kentucky from 1995–96 and 1998–99.
Duke is the first team to be seeded No. 1 over four consecutive seasons since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979.
Duke swept all the major National Player of the Year Awards:
Jason Williams was named the NABC Player of the Year.