“I am built to do this on a high level”: How Kara Lawson rebuilt the Duke for an elite -eight run

Birmingham, Alab. – Before every game, the Duke Guard Reigan Richardson and her trainer Kara Lawson meet for a short conversation.

The Senior Guard has been one of the best players from Lawson since she had arrived on campus in 2022 after spending a season in Georgia. Richardson led Duke in the rating last season and met her 12.4 average again in the first two months of the season.

But her shot has been eliminated in the past few months and Richardson can annoy that. But they helped to center meetings with Lawson.

They talk about the game and then Lawson checks their way of thinking in every game to remind the native North Carolina native who is.

“She keeps me focused and calm in games,” Richardson, who had three points, but on Friday with 47: 38 victory by Dukes 47: 38 Sweet 16 against North Carolina. “When I know that she believes in me and trusts me, it helps me to go to games.”

Lawson has a lot of strengths as a trainer and brings her experience as a former Tennessee Great and WNBA All-Star, who previously trained as an NBA assistant before joining Duke in 2020. Her players say that their calm behavior and their ability to trust them to trust them is the difference that has the Blue Devils in their first elite.

When North Carolina took the lead 11-0 in the first six minutes of the Sweet 16 game on Friday, Lawson brought the players to the bench during a media time limit to send simple news:

The Herzog sisterhood is strong 💙

Alum Chelsea Gray, who did an elite -eight run in 2013, shows love for the Blue Devils after her sweet sixteen victory.#Marchmadness X @Dukewbb X @Cgray209 pic.twitter.com/bobifanpjh

– NCAA March Madness (@Marchmadnesswbb) March 28, 2025

The shots indeed fell. Duke prevailed after the first six minutes 47-27 with 47: 27. “That was the key for us,” said Guard Ashlon Jackson.

When Lawson was hired in 2020, she knew that she was in a tough struggle for the reconstruction of a Duke program that fought for competitive. That was her first goal, but Covid-19 ended her first season early, so she started recruiting.

The problem with recruitment, especially as a new trainer, is that she had no barometer of success that she could take in the players. She also had her curriculum vitae, which also included an Olympic gold medalist, a WNBA champion and winning the Naismith Award 2003 in Tennessee. When she spoke to Jackson, the outstanding newcomer Toby Fournier and others. They just had to believe.

“We have young, high -high school players who we felt fit as we wanted it,” said Lawson. “We knew that we were not very good immediately, but who wanted to be? We tried to sell some of the country’s top talents that we would be good at some point.”

They believed in Lawson, but it wasn’t about what she said was what they saw behind the scenes.

Fournier, a Freshman and Duke’s leading goal scorer comes from Canada and wanted to find a place that could make it comfortable in a new country. The number 10 in class 2025 immediately found this at Lawson.

“I knew that I could trust coach Kara,” said Fournier. “She is a very direct person, it was good because I knew she would never tell me a lie. She will tell you exactly what it is.”

Richardson, who committed himself to a Duchy team that the tournament hadn’t even done, saw the same.

“When I saw how the team was, it brought me here,” said Richardson. “I wanted to find a place that was my second home.”

Lawson doesn’t show much emotions in front of the media and described herself as boring after Duke’s victory, but as much as she focuses on basketball details, she does the same when it comes to connecting with her team.

This is the most important of all the things she learned from the legendary trainer Pat Summit, she said.

“The thing I found for one of their superpowers was their ability to connect with their players and their ability to really get into the fight with them,” said Lawson. “Stay in the fight with you and work to help you get out. You not only know what to do, but be there with you and do you.

“That comes from the coach Summitt … One of her super powers was her ability to connect with her players.”@Karalawson20 Talks about how she learned the player connection of Coach Pat Sumbet. #Marchmadness X @Dukewbb pic.twitter.com/6HD0WM1ZLQ

– NCAA March Madness (@Marchmadnesswbb) March 28, 2025

In the transfer portal, this chose for Lawson, who played eight players for at least 10 minutes against UNC. Your ability to keep talent and get the best out of your bank comes from this connection.

Duke is rarely out of a game, not because it is an elite offense team, but because they play a strong defense and never believe that the game is over. Last year, in the second round victory at No. 2 Seed Ohio State, the Blue Devils were in the middle of the second quarter in front of a double-digit comeback victory at 15.

It is no coincidence that it happened again at this year’s tournament.

Duke is not striking. There is no candidate for players of the year and will not attract national attention with his style of play.

But the Sweet 16 win on Friday has strengthened one thing that Lawson said she always knew: “I’m built for it. … I’m built to do this at a high level.”

And she has removed Duke One Game from the first final Four since 2006.

(Photo by Kara Lawson: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)