Austin Rivers, Duke 2011 – 2012
Austin Rivers may not be remembered as well for his time at Duke as J.J. “The Seed” was only with the school for one season. However, that’s not to say that Austin didn’t leave a huge footprint on the Duke and UNC rivalry in his short stint.
In a game in Chapel Hill, where UNC had won 31 straight games, Austin Rivers went off. The freshman scored 29 points in a closely nit game and came up huge when it mattered.
Down by 1 point with about 4 seconds left, Austin got isolation on the right side of the court. He pulled up over UNC’s Tyler Zeller and drilled his 6th three pointer of the game to give Duke the buzzer beater victory.
It was just another chapter in the Duke/UNC rivalry.
Austin was also a lottery pick. He was selected 10th by the New Orleans Hornets. Although he did not find early success there, Austin is slowly developing into a very effective NBA guard.
This season, he is averaging career highs in points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, three point percentage, PER, true shooting percentage, win shares and value over replacement player.