Duke tied for ninth in latest U.S. News & World Report ranking

U.S. News recently released the latest version of its annual college rankings and Duke University cracked the top 10 once again.  Tying Duke for ninth were the University of Chicago and Dartmouth.

U.S. News included Duke in four of eight categories that have “a strong focus on student success,” and our university was highlighted in the categories for study abroad, service learning, writing in the disciplines, undergraduate research/creative projects.  Duke was also ranked ninth in the “great schools, great prices” category.  For the elite student-athlete, Duke continues to be a premier destination to team with the nation’s best on the playing field while hitting the books at the highest level.

Top Five Colleges/Universities in the 2010 NCAA Tournament
Duke: 9th-best college according to U.S. News
Cornell: 15th
Vanderbilt: 17th
Georgetown: 21st
California: 22nd

Conference-best eight Blue Devils make 2009-10 ACC Honor Roll

On Friday, the ACC announced the league’s 2009-10 Honor Roll and eight Duke men’s hoop players were among the 424 Blue Devil student-athletes on the list.  Duke University led all ACC schools in honor roll selections for the 22nd time in 23 years!  To make the honor roll, a student-athlete must participate in a varsity-level sport while maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher for the full academic year.

Duke Basketball players making the honor roll included Jordan Davidson, Steve Johnson, Ryan Kelly, Casey Peters, Mason Plumlee, Lance Thomas, Todd Zafirovski and Brian Zoubek.  Led by Zoubs’ fourth selection in his four-year career, the eight Devils on the honor roll combine for 15 total years selected.  Duke not only dominated the ACC on the court this past year, winning the regular season and tournament titles, but also set the standard off the court with four more honor roll selections than any other school.  A long national championship run with frequent travel provided a stern test of time management, and it’s impressive to see that our guys were up for the challenge!

2009-10 ACC Men’s Basketball Honor Roll Selections
Duke: 8
Clemson: 4
Georgia Tech/Wake Forest: 3
BC/FSU/UNC/UVA/VT: 2
Maryland/NCSU: 1

*Duke accounts for eight of the ACC’s 30 men’s basketball selections in 200-10 (27%).

*Duke players account for 31% of the honor roll selections earned all time by this year’s ACC men’s basketball honor roll picks.

*With 424 honor roll selections, Duke leads the ACC for the 22nd time in 23 years.

Best of Both Worlds

“The combination of graduating and doing as well as I did while playing basketball at an unbelievably high level and winning a national championship is what I am most proud of.  I wanted to play a high level of basketball at the best academic institution I could.  I knew that whatever I did in basketball would be great, but what really takes it further is what I did at this university.”
Brian Zoubek

Nolan Smith helps organize exciting new Duke talent show

This past weekend, the Blue Devils entered a different Big Dance when they performed in the first-ever Duke Idol.  Organized by Nolan Smith and several classmates in George Grody’s “Markets and Marketing” class, the event showcased a number of Duke’s singing and dancing groups along with skits and “dances” performed by various athletic teams.  Duke Idol was held in Cameron Indoor and proceeds from the event benefited the Duke Children’s Hospital.  Celebrity judges for the event included football coach David Cutcliffe, Sue Wasiolek (assistant vice president for student affairs), Larry Moneta (vice president for student affairs), Kerstin Kimel (Women’s Lacrosse Coach) and Joe St. Geme, M.D., (chair of Duke Pediatrics).  Our squad did not quite end up winning this Big Dance (see their performance below) but did had a great time showing off some additional unique moves on the court!  A special congrats to Nolan for playing a key role in making this fun event happen for the Duke campus.

Lance Thomas designs scoreboard graphics for Senior Night in Cameron

PHOTO GALLERY: LT’s Senior Posters

Lance Thomas’ Senior Night involved more than the traditional senior introduction, intense game, and post-game speech, and started unofficially several weeks ago when he went to work on Photoshop.  The New Jersey native designed customized tribute posters for each senior (Jordan, Zoubs, Jon and himself) that were displayed on the Cameron scoreboard as each senior was announced prior to the game.

Said LT, “I wanted to do something special for the senior class.  I love my teammates, especially the guys that I came in here with and went to battle with.  We’ve been through a lot to get to this point and I wanted to do something special for the guys.   I made a poster for each senior for the scoreboard with their name and number on it.  I did it through Photoshop.  I was very happy with the way it turned out and I actually got to see it on the scoreboard and how it looked.  It was a great moment.  It was a part of an independent study class so I got some credit for it too.  It was all for the guys and I was happy I was able to do it.”

Here are Lance’s designs and his comments about each one…

“For the one with me dunking the ball, I wanted to accentuate the emotion.  I had back-to-back pictures, so I put them together.  I put a cloud in there to go sky high.”

“With Jordan’s, I wanted to show how quick he is.  Jordan is a blur on the court so I put four images as a blur to represent speed.  His turned out really cool.”

“Zoubs’ has a big Z in the background.  I wanted to accentuate the Z because the fans love him and do the Z for him in the stands, and that support has propelled him to play really well.”

“For Jon’s, I put Chicago in the background, the Chicago skyline.  Jon’s one of my closest friends on the team so I wanted to make sure his was special.  It also has stars coming from behind him to represent that he is a trailblazer.  It was nice.”

Brian Zoubek, Ryan Kelly named to 10-member 2010 ACC All-Academic Team

Brian Zoubek and Ryan Kelly were among the 10 student-athletes selected to the 2010 ACC All-Academic Team.  To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.

Given the rigors of Duke academically, the extensive time demands of hoops, and the mental and physical exhaustion each season brings, it takes a special effort to make the All-Academic Team.  Zoubs and UVA’s Jerome Meyinsse are the lone three-time selections this year.  Congrats to both Brian and Ryan!

ACC All-Academic Team Facts & Figures

*Duke has had a player on the ACC All-Academic Basketball Team for 16 straight years.  Clemson has the second-longest streak going at eight years.

*Since 1985, Duke has had at least one person on the ACC All-Academic Basketball Team in 23 of the 26 years for a total of 46 selections in that 26-year period.

ACC All-Academic Selections since 1985

Duke: 47

Virginia: 34

Wake Forest: 32

UNC: 30

Clemson: 25

FSU: 20 (joined ACC in 1992)

Georgia Tech: 20

NC State: 14

Maryland: 9

Miami: 7 (joined ACC in 2005)

Virginia Tech: 4 (joined ACC in 2005)

Boston College: 0 (joined ACC in 2006)

ACC All-Academic Selections since 1997

Duke: 31

Clemson: 20

Virginia: 18

FSU: 16

Wake Forest: 16

UNC: 12

Georgia Tech: 8

NC State: 7

Miami: 7

Maryland: 5

Virginia Tech: 4

Boston College: 0

2010 ACC All-Academic Team

Antoine Allen, Miami

Ben Boggs, Virginia Tech

C.J. Harris, Wake Forest

Luke Loucks, Florida State

Ryan Kelly, Duke

Jerome Meyinsse, Virginia

Glen Rice, Jr., Georgia

Will Sherrill, Virginia

Tanner Smith, Clemson

Andre Young, Clemson

Tyler Zeller, North Carolina

Brian Zoubek, Duke