Duke Blue Devils History

By Author: Cheyanne Cooke
Total Articles: 381
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The Duke Blue Devils have been a perennial contender in the NCAA Men's Basketball picture for as long as most people can remember. The story of the Duke Blue Devils was not always success from the beginning. The Duke Basketball program officially began in 1906 at Trinity College. The first game ever played for Trinity unfortunately ended in a low-scoring loss to Wake Forest in a 24-10 game. Though the success of Duke wasn't instant, it has steadily developed over time.

In 1920 Duke won its first championship in basketball. This championship was actually a state championship and was won over NC State in a 25-24 game. The success of Duke continued to progress, producing Bill Werber, their first All-American player in 1930. For nearly 20 years later the program did not experience too many huge successes. As the 1950's game, the Duke Blue Devils began to make a name for themselves in the Men's College Basketball scene at the collegiate level.

In 1952 Dick Groat became the first ever National Player of the Year for the Duke Blue Devils. The following season Duke joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, the conference ...
... that we currently recognize them in. In 1955 the Blue Devils made their first NCAA tournament appearance. The 1960's came and so did their first Elite Eight appearance in 1960 and their first Final Four appearance in 1963.

The Blue Devils have now made the Elite Eight a total of 18 times, and they progressed to the Final Four in 15 of those seasons. Though the Blue Devils did begin to have success in the 60's, making it to the National Championship Game in 1964, their true success game with a man named Mike Krzyzewski.

Krzyzewski has been one of the most successful coaches in basketball history, producing a record of 787-222 in his coaching career. Consider that the overall record of the Blue Devils in their history is 1910-822. That means that the Blue Devils were 1123-600 previous to Krzyzewski. This is a good record, but nothing compared to what he has accomplished.

Since arriving in 1980, Krzyzewski has helped the Blue Devils become an elite team. Since 1984 alone the Blue Devils have been to the Final Four a total of 11 times and have won the most NCAA tournament games in that period of time with a total of 75 wins.

In the 1990's Duke kicked things off with a bang. In both 1991 and 1992 Duke went the distance through the 64 team NCAA Tournament and became National Champions for two consecutive seasons. This represents the beginning of the true glory of Duke Basketball. The 1992 tournament featured the most famous college basketball play in history. In the East Regional Final game of the tournament Christian Laettner received a long pass which he caught, turned around and made his shot to beat the buzzer, lifting the Blue Devils over Kentucky, helping them to repeat as National Champions.

The Blue Devils have since won the National Championship again in 2001 and are currently in the Final Four again in 2010, fighting to become National Champions again.
AUTHOR:-
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Cheyanne Cooke writes reviews on various sporting events including the online sportsbook. In this piece of write up he highlights one of the most popular sporting league named: NBA and NBA betting odds. He takes the readers opinion on how to bet on basketball.