Duke basketball lands first NCAA Tournament bid under Kara Lawson

Kara Lawson earned her first NCAA Tournament bid with the Duke basketball team. 

It has felt like a long time coming for Kara Lawson and the Duke basketball program as the Blue Devils are finally going back to the NCAA Tournament.

It is the first tournament berth for the Lady Blue Devils since Lawson was introduced as the team’s head coach in 2020.

Duke’s year ended after four games in her inaugural season as the team decided to opt out due to COVID-19 concerns and a 17–13 campaign a year ago did not yield postseason results.

However, Lawson saw her team pile up the victories in a historic season which now has the Blue Devils hosting the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed.

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Placed in the Seattle IV region, Duke will play No. 14 seed Iona on Saturday night in the Round of 64 while seeing No. 6 seed Colorado and No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee State tipoff in the first game of the evening.

Duke basketball looking to continue historic season

The Blue Devils posted a 25-6 record this season, its best since 2016-17.

Duke avenged its two regular season losses to North Carolina with a victory in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament but fell to Virginia Tech, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in the semifinals.

Celeste Taylor leads the way for the Blue Devils, on both ends of the floor, averaging a team-high 11.3 points per game and was named as a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award.

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Taylor was named as the ACC Defensive Player of the Year last month.

A total of eight ACC teams received a berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Duke and Iona are scheduled to tipoff at approximately 9:30p.m. ET on Saturday night, a half an hour after the Colorado and Middle Tennessee game ends.