Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus #7 UConn on March 29, 2026 , Loss , 72, to, 73
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Final
Men's Basketball
72
vs #7 UConn
73
Duke and USA Basketball: 2000's
6/16/2016 5:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
From Tokyo to Rio and everywhere in between, Duke and USA Basketball have shared many of the moments that have shaped the nation's basketball identity.
Throughout the week on GoDuke.com, we'll take a closer look at the relationship between the two programs. Today we take a closer look at the first decade of the 21st century.
Monday: 1960's and 1970's
Tuesday: 1980's
Wednesday: 1990's
Today: 2000's
Friday: 2010-present
2000
At the 2000 Nike Hoop Summit in Indianapolis, incoming Duke freshman Chris Duhon helped the U.S. fight off a talented World Select Team for a 98-97 victory. In his lone USA Basketball appearance, Duhon scored nine points and dished out six assists in 25 minutes. He was 3-of-4 from outside the arc in the win.
Williams and Dunleavy donned U.S. jerseys later that summer to help Team USA capture a silver medal at the FIBA Americas U20 Championship.
2001
Battier was once again on the international stage in 2001, helping the U.S. win gold in Brisbane, Australia, at the final Goodwill Games. Having been drafted sixth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in that summer's NBA Draft, Battier was the 2001 National Player of the Year and National Defensive Player of the Year at Duke, and the only player selected to the Goodwill Games team without previous NBA experience.
Battier played in all five games, averaging 4.6 points and 3.0 rebounds as Team USA outscored its opponents by an average margin of 46.2 points on its way to the gold medal.
Duhon, Carlos Boozer and Dahntay Jones also captured international gold medals in 2001, leading the U.S. to victory at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Saitama, Japan. Boozer posted team-high averages of 15.9 points and 8.0 rebounds, while Duhon averaged 11.9 points and 6.8 assists. Jones chipped in with an average of 3.6 points
For his efforts in Saitama, Duhon was named USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year in 2001.
2002
The U.S. struggled at the 2002 FIBA World Championship despite playing on home soil in Indianapolis, finishing in sixth place with a 6-3 record.
Brand appeared in eight of the team's nine games, making five starts, and averaged 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds. In the Americans' tournament opener, he scored 17 points on 8-of-8 shooting in a 50-point win over Algeria.
Jason Williams also earned inclusion on the team and saw time in seven games, averaging 3.9 points and 1.6 assists.
2003
Duke's lone USA Basketball participant in 2003, J.J. Redick saw his run at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Thessaloniki, Greece, cut short after just two games due to injury. Despite finishing with a 2-1 record in quarterfinal play, the U.S. was eliminated from the medal round on a tiebreaker. The team rebounded to win its next two contests and finish in fifth place.
2004
Boozer became Duke's fifth Olympian when he was named to the squad that represented the United States at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece. The 2004 Olympics were perhaps the most unpredictable since NBA players were permitted to suit up, and the U.S. was able to capture the bronze medal in the midst of a highly talented field.
At the time one of the NBA's finest players with the Utah Jazz, Boozer averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds while shooting a team-best .625 (20-of-32) from the field in eight games in Athens.
2005
Duke incoming freshman Greg Paulus earned a spot in the starting lineup at April's Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis and did not disappoint. In 23 minutes of action, Paulus handed out a then-USA Hoop Summit record 10 assists in helping the U.S. earn a 106-98 win over a World squad that included future Duke teammate Marty Pocius.
Later that summer, Shelden Williams established himself as the centerpiece of USA Basketball's gold-medal winning squad at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey. Coming off of National Defensive Player of the Year honors and an All-America season as a junior at Duke, Williams led Team USA with averages of 14.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. He also ranked second on the team with a .620 field goal percentage and an average of 2.6 steals per game.
Behind Williams' effort, the U.S. outrebounded its opponents in Turkey by an average of 12.2 boards per game.
Helping orchestrate that high-powered attack was former Duke star and current associate head coach Jeff Capel, who served as an assistant coach.
Redick also participated in USA Basketball in 2005, averaging 10.4 points and 1.6 assists for a U.S. team that finished fifth at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina, despite a 7-1 record.
In the fall of 2005, Williams was named USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year for his performance at the World University Games.
Undeniably, the most important move made by USA Basketball in 2005 did not occur until October 26. That day, the nation's governing basketball body announced that Krzyzewski had been named head coach of the USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team, kicking off an historic run that continues to increase in magnitude.
2006
The 2006 FIBA World Championship in Saitama, Japan, marked Krzyzewski's first competition as head coach of the U.S. National Team, but before that got under way, a number of players with Duke ties were busy representing the U.S. on the international stage.
Incoming freshmen Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer got the summer started on the right note, helping the U.S. to a 109-91 at the Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis. Henderson was a bright spot for the U.S. with 13 points and three blocks in 19 minutes, while Scheyer saw 12 minutes of action off the bench.
At the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in San Antonio, the quartet of Taylor King, Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Lance Thomas helped Team USA steamroll its opponents by nearly 30 points per game en route to winning the gold medal.
Thomas, headed to Duke in the fall of 2006, averaged 0.5 points and 1.0 rebounds in a reserve role, while King and Singler averaged double figures with marks of 12.0 and 11.0 points, respectively. Smith finished the tournament with averages of 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
The FIBA World Championship in August featured a 24-team field for the first time and proved to be one of the more exciting editions in the event's history. Krzyzewski led a squad that included Battier and Brand into the semifinals with a 7-0 record, where it was joined by fellow unbeaten teams Argentina, Greece and Spain.
After a decisive win over Germany in the quarterfinals, the Americans were edged out by Greece in the semis to set up a showdown with Argentina in the bronze medal game.
Carrying a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter, Krzyzewski's squad pulled away for a 15-point win and secured a bronze medal in his first tournament at the helm of the team.
Brand played in all nine games, making four starts, and ranked fourth on the team in scoring with an average of 8.9 points and second on the team in blocks at a rate of 1.2 per game. Battier made five starts and played in all nine games, averaging 5.0 points and shooting .476 (10-of-21) from outside the arc.
2007
The 2007 Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis saw Singler and Smith in Team USA uniforms again, this time helping the U.S. to a 100-80 win over a talented World Select Team. Singler earned a starting role on the team and turned in eight points and five rebounds in 16 minutes, while Smith came off the bench for four points and four boards.
Krzyzewski also led the U.S. National Team into action in the summer of 2007, rolling to 10 wins in 12 days at the FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
The team averaged 116.7 points and shot nearly 60 percent from the field for the tournament, while limiting its opponents to a .379 field goal percentage. The U.S. finished the tournament with a 39.5-point average scoring margin.
2008
With all eyes fixed on that summer's Olympics in Beijing, future Blue Devils Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee were busy winning a silver medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Formosa, Argentina.
The U.S. cruised through the first four games of the tournament before falling to host nation Argentina in the final, but Kelly proved to be one of the highlights of the tournament. He averaged 8.6 points and ranked second on the team with averages of 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while starting all five games.
Plumlee was a solid contributor off the bench for the U.S., putting up 5.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest.
The 2008 Olympics marked a pair of firsts in the relationship between Duke and USA Basketball. The Games were Krzyzewski's first as head coach of the Senior National Team and also saw Boozer become the first Duke player to represent the U.S. in two Olympics.
After rolling through preliminary round play with a 5-0 record, the U.S. dispatched Australia in the quarterfinals before posting a 20-point win over defending Olympic champion Argentina in the semis. The gold medal game was a clash between the U.S. and Spain that Krzyzewski called one of the greatest games in international basketball history.
Tight throughout and with Team USA leading by just four with little more than two minutes to play, Dwyane Wade connected on a dagger of a three-pointer to effectively seal the gold medal for the Americans. In winning its first Olympic gold in eight years, Krzyzewski's team was praised for its unselfish play on the court and admired for their patriotic support of the entire U.S. contingent in Beijing.
The U.S. averaged 106.0 points at the 2008 Olympics, setting a U.S. Olympic record for three-pointers made with 77 in eight games. Perhaps the most telling stat from the 2008 Olympic run was the team's average of 18.8 assists per game, a sign of the squad's unselfish play.
Boozer earned his second Olympic medal, playing in all eight games and averaging 3.3 points and 1.9 rebounds. He finished his Olympic career ranked seventh on the U.S. charts with 64 rebounds in Olympic play.
Beginning in 2008, Kevin Cullen, Duke basketball's director of technology, began serving in a video coordinator role for the U.S. Senior National Team under Krzyzewski.
2009
Plumlee represented Duke at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, scoring two points and grabbing two rebounds as the U.S. suffered a 97-89 setback in Portland.
The summer of 2009 also saw Quinn Cook, still a few years away from joining the Duke program, lead the U.S. to the gold medal at the first FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Mendoza, Argentina. Cook ranked third on the team in scoring with an average of 15.6 and averaged a team-high 5.0 assists per game as Team USA scored 113.0 points per contest.
Cook scored 22 points in the gold medal game, helping the U.S. qualify for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship with the victory.
While preparing to sit out his year in residence at Duke after transferring from Liberty, Seth Curry picked up some international hardware in the form of a gold medal with the U.S. at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand. The first-place finish was the Americans' first at the event since Antonio Lang helped the U.S. win in Edmonton in 1991.
Curry averaged 9.0 points and made a team-best 2.1 three-pointers per game for the U.S., shooting .396 (19-of-48) from outside the arc in nine games. In Team USA's semifinal win over Croatia, Curry knocked down 4-of-5 shots from long distance.
On July 21, 2009, USA Basketball announced that Krzyzewski would return for another quadrennial as head coach of the U.S. Senior National Team.
Coming Tomorrow: 2010-the present
Players Mentioned
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