CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kara Lawson is about to be very busy.
In addition to preparing for her sixth season as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils, Lawson last month was named as the new head coach of Team USA, a role she’ll have through the 2028 Olympics and the international tournaments that precede it. One of those competitions is a qualifying tournament this spring for the FIBA Women’s World Cup.
While the Americans have already qualified for the World Cup — they accomplished that when a Lawson-coached team of college players won the AmeriCup this past summer — they’ll play in this tournament anyways. It offers the opportunity to get live reps, knock the rust off and build chemistry, while also allowing decision-makers like Lawson and managing director Sue Bird evaluate the pool of talent ahead of a major tournament like the World Cup.
The hurdle for Lawson is this: Team USA will open play in that qualifying tournament against Senegal in Puerto Rico on March 11. The Americans will finish a stretch of five games in seven days on March 17. This window falls right between the end of the ACC Tournament, which wraps up on March 8, and the start of the NCAA Tournament which starts in earnest on March 20.
And before the qualifying tournament, Team USA will likely host a training camp or two.
It’s in these periods of time where Lawson will have to figure out how to juggle both obligations.
“It takes two great staffs,” Lawson told SB Nation at ACC Tip-Off last week. “My staff at Duke has a high level of experience — so I lean on them a lot to be able to run our program and to teach. So, leaning on them at times when the USA commitment pulls me a little bit, and vice versa.”
Indeed, four of Lawson’s five assistants at Duke have head coaching experience. Tia Jackson was the head coach at Washington for four seasons, Kyra Elzy won an SEC Tournament at Kentucky, Karen Middleton captured more than 100 victories at Division III Wisconsin-La Crosse, and Karen Lange had a stint as the head coach of NAIA MidAmerica Nazarene.
Lawson was quick to point out that she’s not the first college coach to deal with this conflict. Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma were able to coach Team USA to Olympic gold medals while actively coaching in college. On the men’s side, longtime Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski led the Americans to three gold medals while also coaching the Blue Devils.
“When we do select our staff for the national team, I’ll be leaning on them as well at times when I’m with Duke,” Lawson said. “I think that’s the key, is finding people who work really well together. I know I have that at Duke. And then obviously we’ll be in the process here in the coming months of forming that (Team USA staff).”
Lawson’s staff of Team USA assistants and personnel has yet to be announced, but typically it’s a group made up of folks from the college and WNBA ranks. For example, on the 2024 Olympic team, Lawson was an assistant under Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve and worked alongside Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor and former Washington Mystics head coach and general manager Mike Thibault. For the AmeriCup this past summer, Lawson’s assistants included Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk and Old Dominion’s DeLisha Milton-Jones.
Choosing that staff won’t be solely up to Lawson though, she says.
“The lion’s share of those decisions are obviously going to be made by Sue. We’ll collaborate and talk about those things,” Lawson said. “Historically, it’s an all-head coach staff with the national team… I was part of that in Paris and it’s great every day. It’s awesome to work with those great head coaches.”
Lawson and Bird will lead Team USA through what could be a period of change. Longtime Olympic mainstay Diana Taurasi is retired and other aging veterans could get squeezed off the 2028 roster in favor of some of the young rising stars in the game, such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston. Clark said in her Indiana Fever exit interview earlier this month that USA Basketball is “probably my top priority right now” as she heads into the offseason.
If the opinion of the reigning ACC Player of the Year is any indication, young talents will be eager to take the court for Lawson in a Team USA uniform.
“I think she’s a great coach, and I think her basketball mind is unlike any other,” Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, who played for Lawson at the AmeriCup, told SB Nation. “And so, what she’s going to bring to Team USA is something that probably no other coach has brought before, just because of the way she thinks — she’s planning on multiple different levels.”
Before spring rolls around, Lawson will be tasked with leading a Duke team with high expectations. After winning the ACC Tournament and reaching the Elite Eight last season — both for the first time since 2013 — the Blue Devils return four starters and ACC Rookie of the Year Toby Fournier. They added a top-five recruit in freshman point guard Emilee Skinner and also got two former McDonald’s All-Americans back from injuries in Riley Nelson and Arianna Roberson.
Even when she’s not coaching Duke, Lawson will represent the university and the ACC. And there’s at least one person in the conference’s offices in Charlotte who will be paying close attention to her tenure as the leader of the national team.
“I’m really happy for Kara and her family. We’re all proud of her. I’m thrilled for Duke, for the ACC, for USA women’s basketball to have her as head coach,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips told SB Nation. “We’ve had a long lineage in the league of coaches that have been USA basketball coaches. Nell Fortner, Kay Yow, Tara VanDerveer, Coach K, Dean Smith — it’s really spectacular and it’s a reflection of how people think of Kara and that job that she’s done. It’s really special.”
