Duke basketball’s top 10 shooters of the past decade

Top 10 Duke basketball shooters of the past decade: No. 6 Andre Dawkins

Andre Dawkins also made a top 10 appearance in my recent article, ranking the top 10 Duke role players of the last decade. Dawkins is perhaps the purest shooter of the 10 listed there. He never really developed a game outside of shooting, but his outside shot was so good that it made up for the rest of his game.

In fact, he may have had the prettiest-looking jump shot of anyone on this list. He had textbook form, great elevation, terrific balance, and his made shots almost always snapped the bottom of the nets. Dawkins was a consistent and reliable outside shooting threat. He shot at an overall mark of over 40 percent for his career. He also made between 64-67 threes in each of his last three seasons as a Blue Devil.

While Dawkins may not have put up some of the same shooting numbers as guys who rank behind him on this list, it is because his role was far more limited. Dawkins started just 25 games over the course of his four-year Duke basketball career. His role was to run off screens and find open spaces to get his shot off. He was never a guy who would carry a team offensively, but every coach knew that he was the last guy you wanted to leave open.

Dawkins had some incredible shooting nights during his junior season. He started the year off by hitting six 3-pointers in a game against Michigan State. He also drilled seven from deep in a home game against Wake Forest and another six on the road at Florida State. Dawkins also had two performances with six made 3-pointers during his senior season.

He finished in the top 10 in the ACC in 3-point field goals both his sophomore and junior seasons. And he finished just outside the top 10 in his senior year. Every time that Dawkins shot the ball, it was almost expected that the shot would go in. He was a 3-point sniper and a guy I will always remember as one of the best pure shooters to ever put on a Duke jersey.