Duke basketball to soon join elite group of programs
The Duke basketball program will shortly be joining an elite crop of schools that have won National Championships on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Duke recently hired former Boston Celtics assistant coach Kara Lawson to be the head coach of the women’s basketball program, and that only means one thing: many winnings days are ahead for the Lady Blue Devils.
In fact, Lawson has been so successful anywhere she goes that many are expecting Duke to win a National Championship in a short amount of time during her stay in Durham.
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If the Lady Blue Devils were to win a National Championship at some point under Lawson’s tenure, Duke would be the fifth school to win a hoops title on both the men’s and the women’s side.
Ironically, FOX College Basketball tweeted out the four others that have already accomplished the feat days before Duke hired Lawson in Connecticut, Stanford, Maryland, and North Carolina.
Duke came close to accomplishing the feat in 1999, 2002, 2003, and 2006 when the women’s team reached the Final Four and lost in the National Championship Game in 1999 and 2006.
Ironically, the Blue Devils lost to Kara Lawson and the Tennessee Volunteers in the 2003 Final Four.
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However, perhaps the more challenging part of this process would be for the men’s and women’s team to win the National Championship in the same season, something only the Connecticut Huskies did in the 2014 season.
Mike Krzyzewski and the men’s basketball program in Durham already have five National Championships, and both programs made the title game in 1999 but came out on the short end of the stick, losing both games.
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With a “Coach K” now on the men’s and women’s side, the Duke basketball program is in good hands for the foreseeable future, and more National Championship banners will be coming to the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium.