Non-conference play wasn’t kind to Kara Lawson and her Duke team. By early December, the Blue Devils had a 3-6 record, suffering losses to Baylor, West Virginia, USF, South Carolina, UCLA, and LSU.
By now, Duke is back in the top 25 with a 12-0 record in an Atlantic Coast Conference that also features Louisville, NC State, UNC, and Notre Dame. The team pulled off a nice turnaround. Challenging her team early and trusting the process is finally paying off for Kara Lawson.
Duke most recently beat sixth-ranked Louisville by one point. After the game, Lawson said, “All this was was an opportunity for us to see our progress and how much we’ve grown playing a big-time team like this. It’s well chronicled. We played a lot of big-time teams like this in November and we didn’t do well. So, it’s nice to show growth in that aspect.”
Lawson received a lot of criticism amid Duke’s bad start
Duke looked nothing like the team most fans expected to see early in the season. Losing to West Virginia after four of the Mountaineers’ five starters were ejected immediately rang the alarm bells.
For Lawson, the rough start didn’t come at a great time. She had just been named head coach of the USA women’s national team before the start of the season. USA basketball is undergoing some serious changes on the women’s side. Sue Bird was named managing director, Lawson took over for Cheryl Reeve, and a new generation of stars is waiting to make its debut with the senior national team.
Coaching a star-studded team that could soon feature Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Rickea Jackson, Kiki Iriafen, Sonia Citron, and JuJu Watkins comes with a lot of attention. When Duke started the season off with several bad losses, some fans immediately questioned Lawson’s fit with USA Basketball, even though she led a team filled with college stars to an AmeriCup win this past summer.
The women’s national team has won eight consecutive gold medals at the Olympics and four at the World Cup. After that much success, the team has a reputation to uphold and a lot of pressure to keep winning. That pressure extends to the coach.
After fourteen consecutive wins, including some over ranked opponents, Lawson laid those concerns to rest. Duke could even still finish the season undefeated in ACC play. The Blue Devils only have six games left in the season, four against unranked opponents and two against 25th-ranked UNC.