Duke Basketball Trivia
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49 free Duke Basketball trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
44 free Duke basketball trivia questions with answers. Duke basketball trivia for people who know why the tents outside Cameron are called Krzyzewskiville. This quiz covers the Blue Devils from Trinity College's first game in 1906 to Jon Scheyer's teams: how the nickname came from French Alpine troops, why Cameron Indoor Stadium was partly paid for by a Rose Bowl, and how Mike Krzyzewski went from Bob Knight's point guard at Army to the winningest coach in the men's game. The player rounds cover Dick Groat, Christian Laettner and the 1992 shot against Kentucky, Bobby Hurley's assists, Grant Hill, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, JJ Redick's ACC scoring record, Jon Scheyer's 2010 title, Kyrie Irving's toe, Zion Williamson's exploding shoe, Paolo Banchero and Cooper Flagg. There are questions on all five national championships, the Cameron Crazies, and the rivalry with North Carolina eight miles down Tobacco Road, including the 2022 Final Four. Easy questions first, then ones only a Crazie would know. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the program, its arena, its coaches and its players, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Duke won three of its five national titles in which city?
Indianapolis
Indianapolis staged the 1991, 2010 and 2015 wins, the first coming a year after Duke lost the final by 30 points. The other two titles, in 1992 and 2001, both came in Minneapolis.
Q 02Duke's Blue Devils are named after World War I mountain troops from which country?
France
France's Chasseurs Alpins were nicknamed "les Diables Bleus", and their blue capes and berets caught the public eye when units toured America raising war funds. The student paper adopted the name in 1922-23.
Q 03Which 2024 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics played his only college season at Duke in 2016-17?
Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum was the player Boston wanted all along: the Celtics traded away the first pick of the 2017 draft, moved down to third and took him anyway.
Q 04Which No. 15 seed, led by CJ McCollum's 30 points, stunned Duke in the 2012 NCAA tournament?
Lehigh
Lehigh won 75-70 in Greensboro, in Duke's home state, for the first NCAA tournament victory in the school's history.
Q 05Money from which bowl game, reached by Duke's unbeaten 1938 football team, helped pay for Cameron Indoor Stadium?
Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl money from January 1939 went into the $400,000 arena. Duke's "Iron Dukes" had not allowed a point all season, then lost 7-3 to USC on a late touchdown pass.
Q 06What is the tent city where Duke students camp for seats outside Cameron Indoor Stadium called?
Krzyzewskiville
Krzyzewskiville is said to date to 1986, when about fifteen students pitched camp on a Thursday to be first in line for a weekend game, and others quickly copied them.
Q 07The Cameron Crazies are credited with popularising which famous taunt in 1979?
The "air ball" chant
The "air ball" chant is traced to February 24, 1979, when North Carolina held the ball for most of the first half, finally shot and missed everything. Duke led 7-0 at halftime and won 47-40.
Q 08Coach K turned down which NBA team's offer in 2004?
Lakers
The Lakers' general manager Mitch Kupchak made the offer, reportedly five years and $40 million, after Phil Jackson left. Krzyzewski said no and coached Duke for 18 more seasons.
Q 09Which coach did Mike Krzyzewski play point guard for in college?
Bob Knight
Bob Knight later hired him as an assistant at Indiana, and in 2011 Krzyzewski's 903rd win took his old coach's record for the most victories in Division I men's basketball.
Q 10In which city was Mike Krzyzewski born?
Chicago
Chicago is where his father, born William Krzyzewski, ran a downtown elevator under the name Kross and owned a bar, Kross Tap, that young Mike cleaned on Sundays.
Q 11Where did Krzyzewski win his record 903rd game in 2011 and later his 1,000th?
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden saw both: win 903 in 2011 took the Division I record from his own mentor, and win 1,000, over St. John's in 2015, was a total no men's coach at that level had reached.
Q 12Whom did Duke beat in the 1991 final to win its first national title?
Kansas
Kansas lost 72-65 in Roy Williams's first title game as a head coach. He later spent 18 seasons in charge of Duke's archrival, North Carolina.
Q 13Whom did Duke upset 79-77 in the 1991 Final Four, a year after losing to them by 30?
UNLV
UNLV came in 34-0, and the defeat ended a 45-game winning streak. A year earlier the same team had beaten Duke 103-73, the widest margin a title game has seen.
Q 21Who was the consensus national player of the year on Duke's 2001 championship team?
Shane Battier
Shane Battier scored 25 points in the semifinal as Duke climbed out of a 39-17 hole against Maryland, then was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.
Q 22Which Duke sharpshooter set the ACC career scoring record and became an NBA head coach in 2024?
JJ Redick
JJ Redick got the job with no coaching experience beyond his son's fourth-grade team. At Duke his 2,769 points had broken an ACC record that stood for 51 years.
Q 23Whom did Duke beat 61-59 in the 2010 national final?
Butler
Butler was playing the final in its own home city, and Gordon Hayward's half-court shot at the buzzer, which would have won the title, only just missed.
Q 14Which North Carolina star's nose was broken by Gerald Henderson's elbow in the final seconds of a 2007 rivalry game?
Tyler Hansbrough
Tyler Hansbrough got up with blood streaming from his nose and Henderson was ejected. Both men later called it an accident, and Hansbrough played the ACC tournament in a face mask.
Q 15Which coach left the inbounds passer unguarded with 2.1 seconds left before "The Shot" in 1992?
Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino put an extra defender on the catch instead of the ball, so the full-court pass was thrown freely. Weeks earlier at Wake Forest, Duke had tried the same play and the pass went astray.
Q 16Which freshman-led team did Duke beat in the 1992 final to repeat as champions?
Michigan
Michigan's Fab Five, five freshman starters including Chris Webber, led 31-30 at halftime. Duke then won the second half 41-20 to take the title 71-51.
Q 17Which US squad had a Duke senior as its only college player?
The 1992 Olympic Dream Team
The 1992 Olympic Dream Team kept one place for a college player, and Duke's national player of the year got it ahead of Shaquille O'Neal. The other eleven were NBA stars.
Q 18Which Duke point guard held the NCAA career assists record with 1,076 for 33 years?
Bobby Hurley
Bobby Hurley's record stood until Purdue's Braden Smith passed it in the 2026 NCAA tournament. Months after leaving Duke, Hurley nearly died when his car was broadsided as he drove home from an NBA game.
Q 19Which freshman led Coach K's final Duke team in scoring before going first in the 2022 NBA draft?
Paolo Banchero
Paolo Banchero also holds an Italian passport and had been named in Italy's squad in 2020. In 2023 he chose to play for the United States instead, to the fury of Italy's federation.
Q 20Whom did Duke beat 82-72 in the 2001 final for its third title?
Arizona
Arizona had closed to within two early in the second half when Mike Dunleavy Jr. hit three three-pointers in an 11-2 run. He led Duke with 21 points.
Q 24Who captained Duke's 2010 national championship team as a senior guard?
Jon Scheyer
Jon Scheyer shared the captaincy with Lance Thomas that season, and twelve years later he succeeded Mike Krzyzewski as Duke's head coach.
Q 25Whom did Duke beat 68-63 for its fifth title in 2015?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin had knocked out the unbeaten, 38-0 favourite two nights earlier and led Duke by nine in the second half, before freshmen Grayson Allen and Tyus Jones turned the final around.
Q 26Which Duke star was born in Melbourne, Australia?
Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving's father was playing professional basketball in Australia when he was born. A toe injury limited him to 11 games at Duke, and he still went first in the 2011 NBA draft.
Q 27Which company's shoe split apart under Zion Williamson in the opening minute of Duke's 2019 game against North Carolina?
Nike
Nike watched its shoe tear open with Barack Obama in the crowd, and Williamson left with a sprained knee. The company's shares fell the next day.
Q 28Which NBA team drafted Zion Williamson first overall in 2019?
New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans Pelicans won the draft lottery with only a 6 percent chance, less than four months after their star Anthony Davis had asked to be traded.
Q 29Which Duke freshman from Maine was the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft?
Cooper Flagg
Cooper Flagg skipped a year of high school to arrive early, so he played most of his only Duke season at 18. He was national player of the year, then NBA Rookie of the Year with Dallas.
Q 30Which Duke big man was the first Coach K player drafted first overall, in 1999?
Elton Brand
Elton Brand left after a sophomore season as national player of the year. His Duke team went 37-2 and unbeaten in the ACC, then lost the title game to Connecticut by three points.