Lawson, Blue Devils to Hold First Practice Wednesday - Duke University - GoDuke.com

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DURHAM, N.C. – First year head coach Kara Lawson and the Duke women's basketball program will officially tip off practice for the 2020-21 campaign Wednesday, Oct. 14 in the K Center for Academic and Athletic Excellence.

"This is what we've been waiting for, what we've been pointing towards," said Lawson on starting practice Wednesday.  "Since we got the job, our staff and players are excited to now not have any restrictions, to be able to be around each other, be able to have longer sessions, be able to put in that work and to inch ever so closer to the first game."

The Blue Devils have been holding individual and group workouts over the last month, but the squad will be able to have longer team workouts starting next week.  

Lawson, who was hired as head coach of the Blue Devils on July 11, takes the reigns of a squad that collected an 18-12 record a year ago and returns only seven letterwinners and three starters from 2019-20.  

"Before you have the first game you have the first practice so it's a day and a mark on the calendar that you always look forward to," added Lawson.  "Certainly, as a coach and as a player, the first day, and every year is different.  Every year everyone's got a lot of optimism and excited about the year, we're no different.  We look forward to the season and getting a chance to work with these players day in and day out, as well as working with the staff day in and day out."

Leading the list of returners include junior Miela Goodchild (7.3 points, 43 treys), senior Jade Williams (7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds), junior Onome Akinbode-James (4.6. points, 5.0 rebounds) and Mikayla Boykin (7.1 points. 1.9 rebounds).  

The Blue Devils only return 37.7 percent of their scoring from a year ago with the departure of WNBA Draft selections Haley Gorecki (18.5 points) and Leaonna Odom (14.3 points).  Duke also lost Kyra Lambert and Azana Baines to the transfer portal, before Lawson was hired.  

Duke will feature a roster of 11 student-athletes, which includes junior Uchenna Nwoke, sophomore Jaida Patrick, sophomore Jada Claude and sophomore Jennifer Ezeh.  The Blue Devils welcomed three newcomers to the squad in graduate transfer Sara Anastasieska (5-11 guard), freshman Vanessa de Jesus (5-8 guard) and walk-on Jiselle Havas (5-10 guard).  

Lawson, a WNBA and Olympic Champion, brings a decorated basketball career to Durham, after most recently serving as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics.  She played 13 seasons in the WNBA and helped lead the Sacramento Monarchs to the 2005 championship.  Lawson helped lead the United States to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.  She was a four-time All-SEC selection and two-time All-American at Tennessee, while leading the Lady Vols to three NCAA Final Four appearances.  A 2003 graduate of Tennessee, Lawson played for the late Pat Summitt and collected a 126-17 overall record in four years.  

Hired to assist Lawson on the sidelines are assistant coaches Beth Cunningham, Winston Gandy and Tia Jackson. The trio boast a combined 46 years of collegiate coaching experience including one NCAA Championship, 17 NCAA Tournament selections and six NCAA Final Four appearances.  

"We have put a lot of work in to get here, not just on the court, but our players off the court, with all the protocols and the testing and the restrictions," said Lawson.  "They've been really good, disciplined, an added layer of discipline. Normally, discipline – you're talking about it as it relates to academics, as it relates to basketball, now it's as it relates to social life outside of basketball.  We've had to get all that right to get here. If we get any of that wrong from a protocol standpoint, we can't have first day of practice and so I think our players really, really understood that and had the change of behavior, as we all have had to do, to make sure that we could do this safely. They get a lot of credit for that and hopefully we can just continue doing that."

The ACC will be releasing the 2020-21 schedule at some point, but no timetable has been set yet on a release date.  More information will be distributed as it becomes available.  

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