It seems hard to believe, but Kara Lawson is heading into her fourth season as Duke’s head coach.
She arrived at an inauspicious time - the Covid pandemic hit in her first season and the team voted to stop playing after four games. Year II was a middling 17-13 and last season saw Duke go 26-7 and get back to the NCAA tournament.
We’ll see how this year goes but Lawson has set up a big game and, therefore, a big opportunity: South Carolina is coming to Cameron as part of the Jimmy V Classic.
Two problems for Duke in that matchup: first, Vanessa deJesus is out for the year with a knee injury.