Personnel, defense and chemistry cuing Duke’s resurgence

She sits in her office at Duke University wearing her Team USA hoodie, and behind her are two framed pictures, which serve as touchstones.

One is a photo of her and three gold medalists from the U.S. women’s 3×3 basketball team, the first team ever to win gold in a sport that made its debut at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo two years ago. The other is a picture of her with the Boston Celtics team that she was an assistant coach for before being hired by the Blue Devils in the summer of 2020.

For head coach Kara Lawson, she still carries what she learned from coaching at the highest levels possible to Durham, North Carolina as she helms the ACC leaders, sitting at a 16-1 and a perfect 6-0 in conference play.

“You’re trying to help push your players to keep improving and to compete and to win, so that stays the same through whatever level and gender you coach,” Lawson said.

Her push for them to keep competing and winning has resulted in them being the top scoring defense in the ACC, allowing just 50.4 points per game. This level of defensive intensity allows for Duke to have the second-largest scoring margin in the conference, at +19.5, and the highest field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 34 percent from the field.

This week the Blue Devils are No. 13 in the AP Top 25 poll, and they are looking like great candidates for their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2018. Until that happens, Lawson wants her team to continue to improve – especially on the defensive end – and live up to the standard of playing hard, defending, and team basketball.

“We’re in a good position and we’ve got over 75 percent of the league left to play, so a lot could happen,” Lawson said. “Our league is really competitive this year, so that’s one of the things that we have to just focus on.”

Duke’s rise this season can be traced to the great crop of reliable talent that they have, including Celeste Taylor (12.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game), Kennedy Brown (8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game), Elizabeth Balogun (10.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks per game), Shayeann Day-Wilson (7.5 points, three rebounds and 0.6 steals per game), Reigan Richardson (6.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and one steal per game) and Jordyn Oliver (3.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game).

Kennedy Brown…