Duke basketball: The five greatest defensive teams under Coach K

• Team’s top five defenders: Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy, Nate James
• 70.5 points allowed per game
• 41.6 opponents’ field goal percentage
• 10.5 steals per game (program record)
• 5.0 blocks per game
• Defensive grade: 99.0

Just as there is no doubt who is the overall greatest Duke basketball player of all time — that mind-games fella from the previous slide — there should be no doubt who is the overall greatest Duke basketball defender of all time: Shane Battier. Therefore, one would think he would have to be a member of the best defensive team under Coach K.

Yup.

As a senior, Battier — not the most athletic player but sharper, brighter, wittier, and more competitive than all but a handful of people on the planet — put together a masterpiece. Sure, the combo forward’s offense was on another level, averaging 19.9 points that season with a deadly shooting touch from both inside and beyond the arc. But his defense — in addition to his overall leadership — was otherworldly.

And Battier was crafty. He set the national record for charges taken in a career (111). He did something few paint defenders can pull off, positioning his hand low in order to knock away the ball as an opposing post player pulls up for a close-range attempt. The combination of his hand-eye coordination and balance among traffic — either down low or beyond the arc — was a thing of beauty.

And he saved his greatest beauty for just the right moment.

Ahead by seven early in the second half of the championship game against Arizona in 2001, seconds after sophomore wing Mike Dunleavy had knocked down his second of soon-to-be three 3-pointers on consecutive possessions — a.k.a., the statement flurry that gave Duke control and gave its fans goosebumps from thinking ahead to title No. 3 coming home to Durham — Battier provided what this writer believes to be the greatest defensive play in Duke basketball history.

The presence of mind to come off his man to defend a guard darting to the basket. The two-handed block, blanketing the opponent yet somehow never touching him. The all-pro wide-receiver-like balance on the baseline. The one-handed backward flip to freshman guard Chris Duhon, requiring Battier to turn on his go-go-gadget eyes on the back of his head to complete.

We’ve already talked about Duhon a few slides back. We could sit here and chat about the sheer defensive tag-team dominance of he and sophomore guard Jason Williams, two quick, slick guards who averaged 2.0 steals apiece for the season. We could discuss the dog-pound toughness of fifth-year senior forward Nate James, who was good for 1.6 steals per game. We could bring up the underrated defense of Dunleavy, who averaged 1.4 takeaways of his own. We could even point to the respectable 0.9 blocks and 0.9 steals per game from sophomore center Carlos Boozer.

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We could even break down how the “Miracle Minute” win against Maryland that season wouldn’t have happened without the defenders who all season executed the greatest fullcourt press in Coach K’s history.

Or we could just keep replaying the first clip on this slide of Battier’s magic trick — the No. 31 in Cameron’s rafters was the last 3-time winner of the NABC DPOY award — and just leave it at that. The 2000-01 Duke basketball team is the greatest defensive unit under Krzyzewski, no doubt about it.

And a fitting end to this article is this quick question and answer for anyone who dares to disagree with this ranking of the 2000-01 champs: “Who’s your daddy? BATTIER!”

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