The Duke Blue Devils have seen much success under Mike Krzyzewski. Four national titles, 11 Final Fours, 25 combined ACC regular season and tournament championships. Without a doubt, he’s one of the greatest coaches of our generation.
But great coaches are made better by great players. Krzyzewski has had the fortune of coaching a lot of talent, most notably at the point guard position. In our list of the ten best point guards in the Coach K era, three have their jerseys hanging in the Cameron Indoor rafters, four others went on to become either head coaches or assistant coaches, and the remaining three are still playing professionally.
Let’s take a look at the top ten point guards for Duke in the Coach K era.
10. Quin Snyder
Stats – 6.2 points, 4.2 assists, 35.6% 3-point, 3 Final Fours, 2 ACC Tournament championships
Statistically speaking, Snyder isn’t one of the best point guards on this list. In fact, he may rank the worst. However, not every point guard on this list went to a single Final Four and Snyder found himself in three of them.
Snyder played point guard for the Blue Devils from 1985 through 1989, reaching the Final Four in ’86, ’88, and ’89. In his senior season, he was named team captain on a team with Danny Ferry and a young Christian Laettner, showing was his teammates and coaches thought of his leadership. Leadership is a big word for this list, and Snyder definitely had it.
9. Greg Paulus
Stats – 8.6 points, 3.4 assists, 39.8% 3-point, All-ACC Freshman team
Paulus burst onto the season in 2005-06 as a hot shooting freshman. He stepped into the starting role from day one on a veteran-laden Duke squad with J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams. However, he more than held his own, dishing out 5.2 assists his freshman year (his most in any season) and helping Duke to a 32-4 record.
The Ohio-native topped out at 11.8 points a game his sophomore year before eventually moving out of the starting role by his senior year in part to the development of another player we’ll find on this list later.