Kara Lawson - Starting off on the right foot SPEECH

[bballnut90]

So let’s fast forward 5 years and Kara’s done well at Duke, getting top recruits, winning an ACC or 2, making some good runs in the NCAA a final four maybe, a few elite 8s and then bam, Geno retires, does Kara throw her hat into the Basketball Capital of the world ring? I mean talk about challenges following Geno?
Plus, I want to see @triaddukefan and all the LV fans heads explode...

Sorry Triad I could let this feel good thread get you too far down the happiness trail...

My guess is Geno will handpick his successor similar to Pat, and there's no way he'll target Lawson IMO. My guess is UCONN stays in the family and goes with Ralph or Berube unless someone else emerges as a strong candidate (maybe Bird if she starts coaching??)

I don't see Kara jumping ship either if she has a good thing going at Duke, unless it's back to Tennessee or to a big time P5 job where they throw a bunch more money at her. Even Tennessee I don't think is a slam dunk since they passed over her last year and she's been critical about the lack of diversity in the AD there.

She's been complimentary of UCONN teams as an announcer but switching from Duke to UCONN is a loaded situation. First, taking over for legend is going to be a very difficult task, and legendary coaches who retire usually hand pick their successor and keep it in the family (ex Pat, Muffet, Barmore). UCONN selecting a Tennessee grad with no ties to the program and no apparent relationship with Geno is bound to get some mixed reactions. UCONN also isn't a P5 school which could be a deterrent and more of a recruiting barrier once Geno retires. She'd also be further from her hometown of DC by a couple of hours.

On the flip side, she's lived in Connecticut working for ESPN and playing for the Sun, so if she likes living there, it could be a great fit. If she's the strongest candidate and UCONN throws big bucks at her, anything is possible but I think she's a big time long shot.

 

[bballnut90]

IMO, it almost always revolves around recruiting. Assuming that her ultimate goal is winning NCs, I’d think that if Lawson feels that Duke’s academics restrict her recruiting pool in any way, she may indeed take a shot at the UConn job.

I don't believe Duke has particularly strict restrictions for athlete admission like Stanford does. Duke was a recruiting powerhouse in the 00s under Gail and McCallie and the men's program has turned into a breeding ground for 1 and dones, so I don't see academic restrictions being limiting unless standards have changed.

 

[triaddukefan]

So let’s fast forward 5 years and Kara’s done well at Duke, getting top recruits, winning an ACC or 2, making some good runs in the NCAA a final four maybe, a few elite 8s and then bam, Geno retires, does Kara throw her hat into the Basketball Capital of the world ring? I mean talk about challenges following Geno?
Plus, I want to see @triaddukefan and all the LV fans heads explode...

Sorry Triad I could let this feel good thread get you too far down the happiness trail...

 

[Dillon77]

I would argue the next tier also isn’t so young, Kelly-58 in Jan, Vic-59, Wes Moore 63, Doug Bruno-69, followed by the “Spring chickens” of Dawn-50, Scott Rueck-51, Brenda-50, Jeff 49, I would also add that Cori 49 and Jose Fernandez-49 in Nov are close in age to this group but a tier down from them as well.
Kara is 39, Courtney Banghart 42, Adia Barnes 43, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee 45 are comparable with Banghart the most successful to date and all with huge upside. And lest I forget and get harangued from the masses, Carla Berube is 45.
I will say this and give credit to @Dillon77 is Meg Duffy -36 will enlighten many of us here on the BY with her current Covid stricken Marquette squad on her coaching acumen as she’s destined for P5 greatness. If Niele 43 falters, ND has options is all I am saying..

As fellow Boneyarders and Benchers know, I'm a fan of Megan Duffy, both as a player and a coach. Regarding the latter:
- Has gone to the postseason in every season she's coached, either as an assitant (St. John's, George Washington or Michigan) or head coach (Miami (Ohio), Marquette).
- She's won 20 games in each of her three seasons as a HC.
- Took over a Marquette team that lost all five starters to graduation (after Caroline Kieger took the HC job at Penn State). The team was picked to finish ninth in a pre-season poll and she led them to a second place finish.
Two of her players -- Junior Selena Lott and frosh Camryn Taylor -- made the All Big East team. They would've easily made the NCAA in 2020.
- Four of her top five scorers from last year are back.
- She landed her first Top 100 prospect in 2021, when forward Kendra Gillispie verbally committed to the Warriors.

I was hoping that MM would've stayed at ND another year or two so Niele Ivey and Megan Duffy could've both had the chance to interview. But ND AD Jack Swarbrick had his sites set for Niele from (before) the get go. Niele, not surprisingly, is off to a fine start recruiting (with Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron verbally committed). Look forward to the upcoming season.

By the way, I'll point out that Megan Duffy has a future HC on her staff in the person of former Dayton star Justine Raterman, who come over to Marquette from Miami with Duffy. She coaches forwards and posts and helped take a middle-of-the-road (ranked) forward in Camryn Taylor and helped her make first team as a frosh. Keep an eye out.

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BTW, former Marquette star and player Carolyn Kieger is still only in her mid-30's herself as she starts her second year at Penn State. It's got to be better than the 7-win season she had last year. And things didn't get much better when her top two returning forwards both transferred. However, she's got two top frosh that she recruited -- Leilani Kapinus and Maddie Burke -- so maybe she'll find the personnel for her style of ball (upbeat, fast, intense).

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There is a certain symmetry to Marquette-Penn State and ND here: Duffy got the job at Marquette because Kieger took over at Penn State for Coquese Washington, who is now at ND for her second stint as an assitant. During her first stint, she was point guard for....you got it...Megan Duffy.