Duke Basketball; 100 Seasons: A Legacy of Achievement

Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2004. Presumed First Edition/First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/very good. 192 pages. Illustrations (many in color). Bibliography. Minor DJ and page soiling. Foreword by Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke Blue Devils men's basketball is the college basketball program representing Duke University. The team is fourth all-time in wins of any NCAA men's basketball program, and is coached by Mike Krzyzewski. Duke has won 5 NCAA Championships and appeared in 11 Championship Games (third all-time) and 16 Final Fours (fourth all-time), and has an NCAA-best .755 NCAA tournament winning percentage. Eleven Duke players have been named the National Player of the Year, and 71 players have been selected in the NBA Draft. Duke has 36 players named All-Americans (chosen 60 times) and 14 Academic All-Americans. Duke has been the Atlantic Coast Conference Champions a record 20 times, and also lays claim to 19 ACC regular season titles. Prior to joining the ACC, Duke won the Southern Conference championships five times. Duke has also finished the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll seven times and is second, behind only UCLA, in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation by the AP with 121 weeks. The Blue Devils have the second longest streak in the AP Top 25 in history with 200 consecutive appearances from 1996 to 2007, trailing only UCLA's 221 consecutive polls from 1966-1980. ESPN, in 2008, named Duke the most prestigious college basketball program since the 1985-86 season, noting that "by any measure of success, Duke is king of the hill in college basketball in the 64-team era of the NCAA tournament." William "Bill" Brill (June 21, 1931 - April 10, 2011) was an American sportswriter and author. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended Christchurch School in Middlesex County, Virginia. Brill attended Duke University before began his sports writing career with the Covington Virginian in 1952. Brill joined The Roanoke Times in 1956 and was named sports editor in 1960, before retiring in 1991. Brill had something of a "love-hate" relationship with his readers, who generally recognized him as a talented writer and reporter, but often felt he favored universities in North Carolina over Virginia Tech and Virginia. The Roanoke Times promoted its college football prediction contest as an opportunity to "beat Brill." When Virginia Tech was invited to join the ACC in 2004, the now retired Brill predicted that the Hokies would not win an ACC championship during his lifetime. However, they won twelve, with the Virginia Tech football team winning the ACC championship in their first season in the conference, prompting calls and letters to Brill from Virginia Tech fans. Brill wrote a sports column for the Durham Herald-Sun from August 1992 through April 1994. He served as President of the Atlantic Coast Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association (ACSWA) from 1982 to 1984, named the Virginia Sportswriter of the Year in 1991, and President of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters from 1993 to 1995. Brill was the 1995 recipient of the Jake Wade Award for lifetime contributions to college athletics from College Sports Information Directors. Brill has covered a total of 35 Final Fours, more than any other sports writer. The USBWA president in 1980-81, Brill began his career with the Roanoke Times and World News in 1956 and served as the paper's executive sports editor and columnist through 1991. Following retirement, Brill settled in Durham, North Carolina, remaining a regular contributor to several publications until his death, at age 79, due to esophageal cancer, on Sunday, April 10, 2011. Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski visited him at Duke Med the morning of April 10. Brill was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.