2024 ACC Tipoff: Duke coach Kara Lawson discusses upcoming basketball season

And it felt like five years

Um I think when you take over a program you

know it does take time to kind of make your

full imprint on it

I think we're at a point now where you know

we have returning players and we have um you know

senior juniors and seniors that have been at Duke most

of their career if not all their career

So just uh experience together is there

Um So that makes this year a little different than

maybe the first couple of years where everybody was new

all the time

Um That's so that's been you know nice with that

and uh on top of that not just the the

playing benefits of it but also just the personal benefits

of it

I mean the relationships that you have I mean it's

my third year with Reagan it's my third year with

Ashly

And um you know we're we have really good relationships

and um that's a fun part of it is you

get a chance to be be in their lives for

four years and um get to get to be a

part of the growth you know you get to observe

their growth but you get to be a part of

it as well as from a culture standpoint getting to

build that culture and build that growth and those relationships

for you

What has that been like I mean it's it's the

best part of coaching I think

Um it's why I coach is to be able to

you know build those types of relationships with players and

um for us to have the consistency of our roster

from last year to this year is I think a

testament to to the culture

Um I think we were one of only three schools

in the power four that uh didn't have anybody leave

I think it was us Indiana and Iowa and I

think that speaks a lot in this environment um that

there's something at Duke that um they value and that

they love being being around

And uh I think uh that's that's not lost on

me

Um You know in this this age of college sports

to to be able to have a group that that

all came back

And um you know really really cherishes the relationships they

have with each other and the relationships they have with

me is is special coach

You recently had your uh scrimmage game about four days

ago

Um Do you wanna talk about the positives and the

negatives you saw from your team So going into there

or after the game I should say yeah I think

um you know this time of year is it's just

it's kind of a rough rough draft of uh of

what you're gonna be when the season when the season

um gets going

We're still in our early stages just finished our second

week of practice

So I I you know I see a lot of

potential there but there's a lot of details and a

lot of um you know just execution pieces that we

need to clean up on both ends of the floor

But um they're a great group to work with

They come in excited every day

They're they're working hard and it's a it's a different

different look for us this year

But um you know we have we have an experience

group coming back and I think that that should help

us in the early going

But the experience group I mean y'all made it all

the way to sweet 16 came close to beating uconn

Um What how have those experienced players taken that taken

that from March Madison brought it into this year How

have you taken into that as well Yeah I mean

I think reps are important no matter what line of

work you're in you know repetition getting opportunities to play

um and elimination games are helpful for your growth

And um I think they gained a lot of confidence

um from being able to to win you know a

couple of games in the NCAA tournament but we talk

about it a lot

Like it doesn't entitle us to anything this year

Um it doesn't mean that we're automatically gonna have a

successful year because we had a successful week or weekend

If you really want to cut it down you had

a we had a good weekend

I mean that doesn't entitle you to anything

Um so they know that we talk about that and

they know that it starts over and um I think

we're excited about the starting over process and where we

can get to my last question for you

I mean you were a student athlete yourself at Tennessee

13 seasons of the W NBA

How do you take that experience and knowledge and pass

it down to the to your ladies who you are

coaching I mean I just try to meet them where

they are you know because it's not like you can

boil 13 years down down to a week and talking

to them

So you know they're gonna navigate different different things different

issues um throughout the course of their career

And um chances are uh since I played a long

time I've I've navigated some you know I've had an

experience similar to what they're going through right now

And so I just use my wisdom from those experiences

and and try to give them the best advice that

I can and um obviously knowing them um how they're

going to receive it and knowing their personalities knowing what

they're challenged with

I think it starts with just knowing your players well

so you can give good feedback because it's not cookie

cutter feedback

I can't take the same situation and say the same

advice to someone else

I have to give different advice

Who do you think this team needs this season to

take that next step to you know to to get

to that elite eight game And and the um we

haven't really talked about that to be honest I mean

like um because this team is different than last year's

team

Um how different I don't know yet

I mean we just had two weeks of practice but

the personnel is different

Um the youth is in a different place on the

roster

Um So II I don't know that yet

Um what we talk about is just um trying to

continually improve individually and then trying to get our chemistry

as quickly as we can as a team

Um you know because the season is fast approaching you

know we have a really tough nonconference schedule and we

have to get prepared for that

So we we more look at October than we do

March right now

I'm sure at some point probably in March we'll think

about March

But for right now we've just been focusing on trying

to you know get our system installed get our young

players understanding what we're trying to do on both ends

and just try to build this this new chemistry for

this group away from those two that you had that

you kind of mm I think just to be able

to go on the road you know and win a

couple of games um against good teams was a confidence

booster for us is hard to do

And certainly in in our NCAA tournament format if you're

not a top four seed it's what you have to

do to advance And you know we were one of

the few teams that were able to do that usually

you know the top seeds advance on and we were

one of the the few teams that was able to

to get a win like that

And I think it just spoke to the overall growth

and belief at that team at that time and that's

definitely a goal of ours to build toward you know

that type of of belief and confidence on when we

can when we get to the end of the season

Care

So many so many of the conversations about this team

last year was just all the new conference all the

new place

And now you know there are still a lot of

young players on this team but but they quit for

about a year under the UN system

What what was it like to get you know uh

this season started and to see all of those faces

that are so familiar with

All right

Yeah something new

I hadn't had a year like that before uh since

I've been a coach at Duke to be able to

have so many returners

And um so this is great

Um You know they've all improved

Um They have an understanding so there's certain things that

you don't have to say as much uh with at

least them with the freshman you do but with them

and you can get to different you know you can

get to deeper layers with them personally you know which

I enjoy

Like you kind of have an understanding of you know

where they're strong and where they struggle and you can

kind of get to that next step in in in

your relationships with them um because you have them back

and um that's enjoyable part

Um not just to help a player get better but

to help them grow and and help them um continue

to mature throughout their career

You kind of talked a little about how this is

a much more experience than last year

How do you think that kind of takes some pressure

off the freshmen and their development Just let them you

know settle into the system a little bit more

Well and I think that's what you hope you hope

that your upper classman would um would be solid and

consistent to allow for your freshman to to grow and

have some time

Um That's what you hope

But the reality is I think in you know this

level of college basketball you need freshmen to be able

to play and you need them to contribute and we

certainly need ours to contribute in a big way for

us if we're gonna have um success this year um

you know the same type of um expectation was on

our freshman class last year and I thought they delivered

pretty well through the course of the season and we

wouldn't have had the year we had without their continual

growth and them kind of meeting meeting the the level

of play and helping us win games

So we're we're going to need the same for for

this class as well

Um In July and August is difficult

Was it for you to kind of switch gears from

Duke to team USA to back to Duke Um I

think the calendar just helped me a lot because when

I got back from uh Paris we were uh on

a break

Um Duke

So uh the players were a couple of weeks off

they didn't start school till like August 26 and I

got back like two weeks before that

So that was kind of like a natural break chance

to you know get focused on college

Um So just going to um you know going to

USA um I don't know it's I've I've done that

last what five years let's go back to three on

three

So I'm used to kind of flipping back and forth

It's a great time obviously winning was great

And um you know I grew a lot as a

coach I think that's you know one of the underrated

parts of the experience or maybe one of the under

talked about parts of the experience um when you're a

college coach and you get an opportunity to to go

to a World Cup or go to an Olympics you

know every morning

Um you know we have a coaches meeting and in

the coaches meeting there's four W NBA head coaches and

another college head coach

And you talk basketball and you talk strategy and you

talk skiing

So if you went to like a professional development course

for what you do that's essentially what you do right

Like you go in a room and you have like

breakout session and you take a problem set and you

talk about how each of you would solve it or

what you would do

So you do that every day for a month you're

gonna get better and then your real life application you

know the games and things like that where you're getting

a chance to like have to use it in real

time

It's not theory in a breakout room like you have

to you have to apply it

So from scouting to implementing the game plan to end

game um you know assisting obviously coach coach Reeves a

phenomenal coach and did a great job for us as

a head coach and um you know as as a

coach you want reps too you know so to get

high level reps I mean I had Fran I it

was my scout for the gold medal game and um

you know to get that type of rep and then

be in a type a possession game like that

Um you know it was it was good it was

fun

Um you know everyone's like it was it nerve wracking

and all that

And I mean I guess if you sit there and

think about everything that's going on but to me it

was fun

It was fun to be in a game that mattered

probably at the game that matters more than any other

game in our sport and uh to have it be

close and you know to try and help your team

win it and then ultimately be able to win

It was awesome coaching with team USA something that you

want to continue to be a part of

Yeah I mean listen that's you serve at the pleasure

of the federation

That's how it works

I mean um consistent with the last 27 years of

my life if they asked me to do it I'm

gonna do it

I've enjoyed um all of my time um you know

to the federation whether it was playing serving on committees

um you know coaching three f three coaching five on

five

you know that's that's something that um I've just loved

being a part of

So uh yeah I enjoy it

I enjoy the relationships with the players

I mean some of them I've coached in college when

they were in college age and three on three obviously

and now 505

So it's just really cool to be a part of

their journeys you know and now you see them kind

of almost fully formed as players and people and um

still get a chance to work with them

It's awesome of growth

We put a few scenes from pregnant just the scene

last season and the first couple of weeks of pregnant

Yeah I mean uh Reagan um we'll start with Reagan

Uh Reagan uh just continues to grow I think um

her mindset and um her just um handling situations like

good and bad on the court when they happen I

think she's just getting you know more mature with those

Um being able to settle settle herself down when she

first got the Duke

She was hard for her to settle herself down when

we were in games and and now she's you know

senior and and much better at that

She's she's got just such an outstanding work ethic

She's always had that that's not different like Reagan always

works hard

Um And it's just been fun like to to be

around her as a senior

Um definitely becoming more vocal

She's not you know the most vocal person

Um But in her way she's becoming more vocal you

can hear her voice on the court more

Ashlyn is vocal

Um she was like that when she got there as

a freshman

Um and we really needed her voice last year as

a sophomore

As we were so young she kind of had to

play like an upper classman for us to be successful

Um she's such a great teammate he's such a great

leader and she's willing to do whatever for the team

Uh last year she had to play you know a

lot of point guard for us because we didn't have

a lot of numbers at that position

And um she did that well and she can play

every position on the court for us

Um she doesn't but she knows it you know like

she's very intelligent and then defensively she's very intelligent as

well and um she's just more comfortable and um I

think just excited they're both in in really good shape

and I think and I don't think they're both playing

very well in practices right now

How how difficult was it for you as a as

a coach as a person really to see my hard

get injured you know at this point in the summer

and how you know the timing feels like it's so

hard

Uh how how have you walk on that Um you

know she's such a special player and um such a

special young person and you just hurt for for her

as a as a young woman uh to have the

year taken away you know from her before it even

started

And you know there's so much excitement that is bubbling

up when it's a freshman year and you're really excited

to to make the uh make your mark

And um so it's kinda navigating through that those emotions

with her

Um you know continuing to just talk talk with her

and she's got a great disposition

I mean she's she's an optimistic uh young person and

um but is there are days that that is hard

Um as far as our team you know I think

they just embraced her and they're all really good friends

and you know just uplift her and uh we're gonna

miss her this year you know she's a phenomenal player

She's really good you know

Uh we had her in the summer for a little

bit and yeah she's good

So um you know but that's what you expected coming

in right I mean she's 6 4.5 68 wingspan you

know all American high school American

Um so she's she's gonna be a difference maker uh

for us when she's able to play again and I

look forward to that day

Um but I know she'll be a great support uh

for our team this year

A little bit different

Yeah I mean we're much smaller now you know we

lost two of our centers from a year ago and

Kennedy and Camilla and obviously brought in a young center

um to uh you know help man that position for

us

So uh we're gonna have to do it differently than

we anticipated

Um certainly at the start of the summer and uh

scheme a little bit differently

Uh so we're still figuring that out

Um you know it's only been a few weeks without

without a E and um but you know we're capable

we're just really young and not a lot of experience

in the front court

And so that's probably going to be our greatest challenge

our lack of size in the front court and then

our lack of experience

Um you know when when I look at the roster

that's that's gonna be our greatest challenge