Kara Lawson balances leading Duke and Team USA amid March Madness
· Yahoo Sports
DURHAM, NC — Kara Lawson has had a busier March Madness than most coaches.
After guiding Duke to its second consecutive ACC Tournament title in Georgia on March 8, Lawson jetted down to Puerto Rico to make her debut as the head coach of the U.S. National Team in a qualifying tournament for the FIBA World Cup. Lawson coached the star-studded Americans in three lopsided victories — winning by an average margin of 47 points — and then handed the reins of Team USA over to assistant Nate Tibbets while she flew back to Durham to join the Blue Devils for Selection Sunday.
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For Lawson, switching gears from coaching Duke to leading Team USA wasn’t all that difficult. While she was at the FIBA tournament, she gave her Blue Devils the week off to rest ahead of the NCAA Tournament, which is something she has typically done across her six-year tenure at Duke.
And during those breaks, Lawson often still worked anyways. This time, she just had games to coach.
“Everybody kind of gets that time off. Maybe not seven days, but like a big chunk of time,” Lawson said Saturday. “So I just worked during my time off, which is typical for me anyway. If I hadn't gone (to Puerto Rico), I would have been doing something working.”
When Lawson returned to Duke, she built her preparation schedule for the NCAA Tournament around Team USA’s two remaining games so she could watch from afar. The Americans defeated New Zealand by 55 points and Spain by 14 without her.
“It was great to just be around the players again,” Lawson said of her time with Team USA in Puerto Rico. “It was great to have some experience coaching them in a game, because the last camp we had was just practices. It was nice to have reps on that.”
March has been filled with victories for Lawson. In addition to Team USA going 5-0 in Puerto Rico and the Blue Devils going 3-0 in the ACC Tournament, Duke won its NCAA Tournament opener with ease, defeating 14-seed Charleston by 17 points.
Now, No. 3 Duke prepares to face No. 6 Baylor in the second round. It’s a rematch of the season opener for both teams, as Nicki Collen’s Lady Bears defeated the Blue Devils in a neutral site game in Paris, France on Nov. 3, 58-52. That was the first of six non-conference losses for Duke before it broke off a 17-game winning streak en route to winning the ACC title.
That was the first time Collen had faced a Lawson-coached team, but the Baylor coach has long admired her basketball IQ. Collen recalled meeting Lawson back in 2018 when she was coaching the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream in the semifinals of the playoffs and Lawson was on the broadcasting team for ESPN.
“Kara's always had an elite basketball mind. She was an elite player and was really good in the analyst role in terms of explaining the game,” Collen said. “She's someone that understands how to coach great players, be around great players, which explains (her job with) USA Basketball. … I think she's a very, very good play caller and does a good job controlling tempo for her team.”
After making the Elite Eight for the first time since 2013 last year, Duke is aiming to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season under Lawson.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Kara Lawson balances Duke, Team USA during Women's NCAA Tournament