DBR's All Final Four Teams

With Duke back in the Final Four, we thought it would be a good time to think about our all-time Duke Final Four teams. We will focus primarily on the K era teams, because we know those best.

First team

Captain - Christian Laettner. Who could argue? The guy was a cold-blooded assassin.

Grant Hill. He put Duke over the top in 1991, was a huge factor in 1992 (no Hill, no pass, no The Shot) and almost led a radically different team to a third title in 1994. Hill remains the best pure talent Coach K has ever had at Duke. Small sample: his senior year, we watched as he broke up a 4-on-1 fast break by UNC and then brought the ball upcourt. That was spine-tingling.

Bobby Hurley. It seems a bit unfair to put three guys from the same team on the first team, but what can you do? They were all legitimately great. Hurley was a spectacular point guard, and like Laettner, best in big games.

Shane Battier. What Battier did in the 2001 Final Four was as great as any of the other previously mentioned greats. What didn't he do? He led the comeback against Maryland, and in the finals, the guy was everywhere. He blocked a shot and saved it to a teammate. He tipped a shot in with his fingernails. You can argue that plenty of guys wanted it as much. You can't argue that anyone wanted it more.

Chris Duhon.

You're going: really? Well, yes. Really.

Aside from being the point guard on the 2001 team, as a senior in 2004, Duhon suffered a serious injury in the ACC Tournament and played the rest of the way with a bruised rib cage that would've sent lesser men to the bench. His passion, his effort and commitment were extraordinary. That team came up short when Sheldon Williams and Shavlik Randolph got in foul trouble trying to guard UConn's Emeka Okafor (yes, a relative of Jahlil's). You couldn't have asked for a better effort than what Duhon gave.

Second Team

Jon Scheyer. We've said it before and we'll say it again: Jon Scheyer almost never made a mistake. He was never a blindingly fast point guard, but we would watch him and wait for mistakes. They were incredibly rare. It occurs to us that that reminds us of someone else - Arizona's Steve Kerr. He was slow, couldn't jump, but you couldn't make him do anything he didn't want to do - and his jump shot was lethal. So was Scheyer's. The guy was brilliant in the 2010 Final Four.

Danny Ferry. Ferry was the driving force in 1988 and 1989 before passing the torch to Christian Laettner. He was incredibly versatile and was the model for Duke's stretch 4 concept.

Brian Zoubek. Go back and look at the last bit of the Butler game: Zoubek made that win possible. First, he forced Butler to take a timeout. Then he pressured Gordon Hayward into missing a shot. Finally, he got the rebound and hit the first foul shot. At Coach K's order, he missed the second intentionally. Hayward's long desperation shot came within a whisker of going in but bounced out. None of it would have happened without Zoubek's heroics.

Greg Koubek. He was an unsung player in the 1991 Final Four, but Koubek was the guy who guarded Larry Johnson. People forget how amazing Johnson was. He was legitimately great before injuries robbed him of his game. Koubek was a lesser player in every way, but on that night, he held his own with one of the best players in NCAA history. He was absolutely critical to Duke's first title.

Tommy Amaker. He gets overlooked because of the class of '86, but Amaker made that group hum. Johnny Dawkins and Danny Ferry were both on that team and both had their jerseys retired.