J.J. Redick added another trophy to his mantel Saturday.
Duke's all-time leading scorer won the John R. Wooden Award as the nation's best college basketball player in the third-closest balloting in the history of the award.
Redick narrowly won over his friend and Gonzaga junior Adam Morrison.
"I'm extremely honored to receive this award," Redick said. "All the candidates were very deserving. I never set out to win individual awards. To win is just a huge honor."
Morrison finished 72 points behind Redick, followed by Duke's Shelden Williams in third, Villanova's Randy Foye in fourth and Washington's Brandon Roy in fifth.
With the Wooden in hand, Redick completed a sweep of all the major player of the year awards this season, despite the fact that Morrison finished ahead of Redick in scoring for the season. Morrison averaged 28.1 points to Redick's 26.8.
"Society always wants to pick a winner," Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. "I don't know how you can choose between the two of them. They've been great for college basketball. They've raised the attention up a notch this year."
The two players engaged in a bicoastal scoring battle that captured the nation's attention, but both maintained that their teams' successes were more important. Both Gonzaga and Duke ranked within the top 10 for the entire year, and both teams advanced to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
"We're both very competitive," Redick said. "The main thing about it was to help our teams win ball games, and I think we did that."
Morrison echoed that opinion, noting that he was not upset about losing to his close friend.
"He's had a great career," Morrison said. "That's the way it goes. I know what I did on the court."
Redick had one of the best offensive years in ACC history. In a two-week span toward the end of February, Redick set numerous prestigious NCAA and ACC records.
In a Feb. 14 game against Wake Forest he passed Curtis Staples to set the NCAA all-time record for most career three-pointers, and in the next game, Feb. 19 against Miami, he became the highest scorer in Duke history.
He then moved into first place on the ACC scoring charts against Temple Feb. 25. He ended his career with 2,769 points. The Roanoke, Va., native also finished as the NCAA's all-time career leader in free-throw percentage.
Redick is the sixth Duke player to win the award, joining Christian Laettner, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Jason Williams and Alana Beard, who won two years ago to become the first woman to earn the honor.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.