Rob Clough's countdown of the top 10 players in Duke Women's Basketball history continues with his selection for #6, Iciss Tillis. Tillis wore #33 for the Blue Devils from 2001 through 2004. A Kodak All-America in 2003, Tillis also made the 2008 Euroleague All-Star Team as a professional.

Iciss Tillis

Throughout much of her career, Iciss Tillis received criticism for not being as good as Alana Beard and perhaps not living up to her own potential talent. Iciss was sensitive to this criticism and even pondered leaving Duke early in her career, but demurred because Duke was good for her. There's no question that she was good for Duke. The two-time ACC tournament MVP put up ridiculously good numbers during her tenure at Duke, numbers that sometimes get ignored in light of Beard's. She scored 1712 career points, good for sixth all-time. She is one of just three players with 900 or more rebounds, a facet of her game that's underrated considering her slender build. She had 301 career assists (good for 14th place--and she was by far the tallest player at Duke with this many assists), 270 steals (4th place), 151 blocks (5th place), and 128 threes (9th). In other words, she proved that while she preferred being a perimeter player, she could still get the dirty work done. At the same time, no player has produced as many crowd-pleasing plays, going high to finish lob passes, making spectacular drives to the basket or blowing by defenders in transition.

It should be noted that she got it done without having a true, productive post player on the roster during her first two seasons. Tillis had to shoulder the load on her own, aided by Duke's five-out motion offense. That gave her the freedom to post up (which didn't happen all that often), drive or shoot. At 6-4, she was a nightmare to guard on the perimeter because of her size and quickness. Tillis didn't possess a true savant ability other than perhaps her quickness and speed; even at her size, she could get up and down the floor like a gazelle. Tillis was a Kodak All-America in 2003 and was HM in 2002 and 2004. She was a finalist for the Naismith and Wade Trophies. She was a three time first team All-ACC recipient, one of only two players to merit that distinction. Tillis slumped offensively a bit as a senior and suffered the only serious injury of her career (a concussion), but still started every game she appeared in and maintained a high rebounding average to go with double figure scoring. While Beard's presence undoubtedly made her better, I would say that Iciss Tillis' ability as a scorer, rebounder and passer made Beard better as well.

Our top ten will continue next week with Rob's pick for the fifth greatest player in Duke Women's Basketball history...