KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Six decorated former players, including Duke great Shane Battier, and three influential former head coaches have been selected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2019. The honorees will officially be enshrined on Nov. 24 in Kansas City at the 2019 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Celebration presented by Nike.
Battier joins Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney, Purdue’s Terry Dischinger, Providence’s Ernie DiGregorio, UNLV’s Larry Johnson and Stanford’s Todd Lichti join former coaches Homer Drew, Lute Olson and the late Rick Majerus to form the Class of 2019.
An achiever of both team and individual success, Battier averaged 13.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocks per game from 1997-2001. He won his first of three-consecutive NABC Defensive Player of the Year honors and helped take the Blue Devils to the national title game as a sophomore in 1999, and then was an All-ACC First Team and All-America Second Team pick as a junior. Battier led Duke’s national championship run in 2001, earning Co-ACC Player of the Year, consensus National Player of the Year and Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors after averaging 19.9 points and 7.3 boards per game. Battier was picked sixth overall in the 2001 NBA Draft and later won a pair of NBA titles with the Miami Heat.
Currently the Director of Basketball Analytics and Development for the Miami Heat, Battier had his No. 31 jersey retired by Duke in 2001 and was inducted to the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Battier heads to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, where he will join his head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Jason Williams as previous Duke inductees. Coach K was enshrined in 2006, with Laettner in 2010, Hill in 2014 and Williams in 2017.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is located inside the College Basketball Experience (CBE), a world-class experiential entertainment facility adjacent to Kansas City’s Sprint Center. The Hall of Fame’s 14th induction celebration will precede the 2019 Hall of Fame Classic powered by ShotTracker, which will showcase Missouri, Oklahoma, Butler and Stanford competing Nov. 25-26 at Sprint Center.
