Per Duke Comms:
In a ceremony Wednesday night in Chicago, five of the most impactful figures in college basketball history, including Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Johnny Dawkins, were inducted to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Dawkins joined Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, longtime Jefferson coach Herb Magee, and the late talent scout Tom Konchalski as members of the Class of 2023. Coach K was among the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame’s Founding Class in 2006, but officially honored Wednesday following his retirement from coaching in 2022.
With the inclusion of Dawkins and Coach K, the Blue Devils now have 10 former players, head coaches or assistant coaches in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
“We are the luckiest guys in the world because we got to coach these two programs,” Krzyzewski said in his speech Wednesday night, referencing the Duke-UNC rivalry. “And, we’re the luckiest guys in the world because these programs have given us an opportunity to coach some of the greatest players in the history of this sport.”
Now in coaching retirement, Krzyzewski is set to be officially honored in the Class of 2023 after initially being among the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame’s Founding Class in 2006. The winningest coach in NCAA history, Krzyzewski engineered a four-decade run at Duke that was among the most dominant the game has ever seen. Krzyzewski won 1,202 total games – 73 in five seasons at Army followed by 1,129 across 42 years on the Duke sidelines – and earned 12 National Coach of the Year honors before his retirement in 2022. Krzyzewski’s Blue Devil teams captured five national championships, made 13 Final Four appearances, won 15 ACC Tournaments, and claimed 14 ACC regular season titles. He also re-established the United States’ perch atop international basketball, leading Team USA to Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Krzyzewski’s teams spent 127 weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, and his 36 NCAA Tournament bids and 101 March Madness wins are both the most all-time.
“Everything I do as a coach, I measure it from my experiences at Duke as a player and a coach,” Dawkins said. “And so, I measure it against that, which is a high standard. For me, whether we’re drilling in practice, or in the classroom, I want that standard to be the highest. I’ve heard Jay Bilas say this before, but being part [of the Duke program] is the gift that keeps on giving.”
Dawkins is one of the most decorated players in Duke history and is regarded as a key early figure in the program’s ascent to becoming a national power. From 1982-86, Dawkins piled up 2,556 points – a mark that stood as the school’s scoring record until 2006 and remains second all-time. He was a two-time consensus All-American, a four-time All-ACC selection, and was the recipient of the 1986 Naismith National Player of the Year award. As a senior, Dawkins led Duke to the ACC regular season and tournament titles, and an appearance in the NCAA national championship game. The 10th overall pick by the Spurs in the 1986 NBA Draft, Dawkins has gone on to coaching success at Stanford and his current post as head coach at UCF.
Duke Basketball National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Inductees:
Mike Krzyzewski – 2006 Founding Class
Chuck Daly^ – 2006 Founding Class
Dick Groat – 2007
Charles “Lefty” Driesell* – 2007
Vic Bubas – 2007
Christian Laettner – 2010
Grant Hill – 2014
Jason Williams – 2017
Shane Battier – 2019
Johnny Dawkins – 2023
^ former Duke assistant coach, but enshrined based on his NBA coaching merit
* lettered at Duke in 1953-54, but enshrined based on coaching merit
