College Basketball All-Decade Team of 2000s

SG – J.J. Redick, Duke

I wasn’t kidding when I said Duke was arguably the team of the decade. And perhaps the player of the decade is this man, J.J. Redick. His accolades triple in length of Williams, but many of us remember just how talented he was. The important accomplishments are his status as NCAA career record holder for three-pointers made (since broken), Duke and ACC all-time leading scorer (ACC record since broken), and one of the select few Dukies to have their jersey retired.

What did all this amount to? Well Redick was easily college basketball’s most hated player. And he fed off the hatred, often egging fans on after he came around screens and buried a crowd-silencing three. It didn’t help that the Duke squads he played on were typically top-ranked teams with fellow classmate Shelden Williams anchoring the middle. His tendency to play big in big games didn’t help endear himself to fans. Redick dropped 41 on #2 ranked Texas, 35 points on #24 UNC, 41 points at Georgetown(albeit in a loss). I mean, just look at his game log for his senior year at Duke; he scored double figures in all 36 games, he had a stretch of five straight 30-point games, and averaged 33.5 points over the first five games of ACC play plus the aforementioned Georgetown game.

Hands down, one of college basketball’s greatest scorers.