Ball Durham
Fansided

Duke Basketball: Blue Devils end 2018-19 season with annual banquet

ByKevin Connelly|
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 18: Zion Williamson #1 and the Duke Blue Devils bench react to a dunk by the reserves during the second half of their game against the Princeton Tigers at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 18, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 101-50. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 18: Zion Williamson #1 and the Duke Blue Devils bench react to a dunk by the reserves during the second half of their game against the Princeton Tigers at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 18, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 101-50. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

The 2018-19 Duke Basketball season is officially over as the team held its annual award banquet on Thursday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The 2018-19 Duke Basketball team gathered one last time in Cameron Indoor Stadium as the team hosted its annual awards banquet on Thursday evening.

Duke fell short of its ultimate goal of a National Championship this season, losing by one point to Michigan State in the Elite 8.

More from Ball Durham

However, the Blue Devils still won the ACC Tournament Championship, finished the regular season ranked as the No. 1 team in the country, captivated a nation, and finished with a 32-6 record.

The most prestigious award of the night, the team MVP Award, was maybe the most obvious, but the Blue Devils went with Co-MVP’s this season in R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson.

Barrett was named as the USA Today Player of the Year and a consensus First Team All-American, averaging 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game.

R.J. Barrett also won the Iron Duke Award for the most minutes played in a single season. Barrett played in every game for the Blue Devils, averaging 35.3 minutes per game, totaling 1,341 minutes in 38 games.

Williamson won just about every other National Player of the Year Award, including the Naismith Award, the Wooden Award, the AP Player of the Year, the ACC Freshman and Player of the Year, and was also a consensus First Team All-American. Zion averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game.

Zion Williamson was also awarded the Best Field Goal Percentage and Best Rebounding Average Awards. Williamson led the team shooting an unbelievable 68.0% from the field and also led the squad with those 8.9 rebounds per game.

As expected, Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett declared for the 2019 NBA Draft in June and very well could be the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in the draft.

The other freshman that declared for the NBA Draft was Cam Reddish and Reddish was award with the Best Free Throw Percentage of the year, shooting 77.2% from the charity stripe this season.

Reddish is also a projected Top-10 pick in June’s draft.

Freshman Tre Jones will not be headed to the NBA and will be returning to Durham for his sophomore season.

On Thursday, Jones was award with the Most Assists Award and the Best Defensive Player Award.

Jones averaged 5.3 assists per game in 36 games played, totaling 192 assists. In terms of looking at the best defender on a team in terms of statistics is difficult, but if you watched Duke this season you know Jones was the best defender on this team.

However, Jones did lead Duke with 1.9 steals per game, which was 62 totals steals in those 36 games.

The captains of this year’s team, Jack White and Javin DeLaurier, were awarded with the Bill Krzyzewski Captains’ Award.

White was also given the Dr. Deryl Hart Award which goes to the Top Scholar Athlete on the team while DeLaurier was also won the Pagliuca Family Coach’s Award which is given to the player that demonstrates the teams commitment and values on a consistent basis.

Lastly, the Glenn E. ‘Ted’ Mann Award which is given to the player who best contributes to the  teams morale was awarded to Antonio Vrankovic.

The banquet officially wrapped up the 2018-19 season, but the night wouldn’t have been complete without the yearly speech from Mike Krzyzewski.

Home/Duke Basketball