One of Duke's all-time greats became the fourth Blue Devil player to earn the highest honor in college basketball Tuesday morning.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Shane Battier will be part of its Class of 2019. Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Jason Williams have all previously been inducted into the Hall of Fame along with head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Former Duke head coach and Sun Belt Conference commissioner Vic Bubas is also in the Hall of Fame as a contributor to the game.
Battier led Duke to the national championship as a senior in 2001, when he was the consensus National Player of the Year and he also won National Defensive Player of the Year three straight times. He averaged 13.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocks per game during his four years with the Blue Devils, and his No. 31 jersey hangs in the rafters at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
After a 13-year NBA career that featured two championship rings with the Miami Heat, Battier is now the Heat's director of basketball analytics and development.
Battier will be inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame as a player Nov. 24 in Kansas City along with Indiana's Calbert Cheaney, Purdue's Terry Dischinger, UNLV's Larry Johnson, Providence's Ernie DiGregorio and Stanford's Todd Lichti. Coaches Homer Drew, Rick Majerus and Lute Olson—whose Arizona team lost to Battier and the Blue Devils in the 2001 national title game—are also part of the 2019 class.
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