Does Duke's Search For a Women's Coach Hold Clues For an Eventual Men's Search?
Earlier this year, Celtics coach Brad Stevens went for a walk with his wife, Tracy, and assistant coach Kara Lawson.
“We just had an honest conversation about the future, and what were some of my goals,” Lawson recalled.
By the end of the walk, at least one potential destination was clear.
“We were talking about what she’d be interested in the future, and being a head coach at Duke was one of the things that came up,” Stevens recalled.
“I didn’t share that with very many people, probably just my family and Brad,” Lawson said. “There wasn’t very many people that knew that. But I knew that if it ever came open, I was going to try and put my best foot forward and see if I could secure the position.”
The job opened up sooner than she could have expected, when Duke coach Joanne McCallie resigned suddenly last week. Lawson was able to make her case and land the coveted job. She was introduced as the fifth head coach in Duke Women’s Basketball history on Monday.
The choice of Lawson was a bit of an upset. She arrives at Duke with limited coaching experience—a year under Stevens in Boston and a stint coaching 3-on-3 ball for Team USA. That’s far less than many of the other candidates for the Duke job, including a good number that had connections to the school, either as former players or assistants.
At some point in the future, Duke will have another high profile opening, one that, undoubtedly, many aspiring head coaches would mention on beach walks of their own.
“I’m 73,” Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski—he of the five titles and 1,100 wins—said earlier this offseason. “At some time, that’s got to end.”
People have been speculating over Coach K’s replacement for years. Like the women’s job, there are plenty of experienced candidates with ties to Krzyzewski and the program.
However, can we glean anything from the women’s search that will shed light on Coach K’s eventual replacement? Does Duke’s 10-day nationwide search that quickly focused on Lawson bode for the much higher-profile men’s search to come down the line.
In an inside look at Duke’s women’s search, Senior Deputy Director of Athletics Administration Nina King explained that the school’s search committee employed an external search firm—Collegiate Sports Associates—to help find and vet candidates.
Then there were the school officials who were not a member of the committee but, according to King, had input She mentioned athletics director Kevin White, school president Vincent Price and “select members of the board of trustees that we worked with.”
According to reports, one of those board members who was involved in the process was Steve Pagliuca, a member of the board’s executive committee.
Pagliuca has a longstanding relationship with Duke basketball. As an undergraduate, he played freshman ball for the Blue Devils—back in the days before freshmen were eligible for the varsity—and two of his sons, Joe and Nick, have played for Coach K’s Blue Devils teams.
Pagliuca is also a managing general partner and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. In effect, he was paying Lawson’s salary for the past year.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Pagliuca was a supporter of Lawson as a candidate for the women’s job. It’s not clear just how that support manifested itself. It could mean anything from expressing agreement with the committee’s choice to actively campaigning for Lawson to get the job.
The reason that question is a relevant one is the other person on that fateful walk that Lawson took a few months ago.
Brad Stevens has long been mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Mike Krzyzewski. Both Krzyzewski and Stevens have denied that it will happen. Coach K told John Feinstein, “He's a great coach. But it needs to be someone who understands the culture,” and Stevens told Feinstein he was out, “because I'd insist they take down that 2010 banner (won over Stevens’ Butler Bulldogs) and I don't think they'd be willing to do that. I couldn't possibly look at it every day.”
There’s also the possibility that Pagliuca wouldn’t want to lose his team’s head coach—generally thought to be one of the best in the NBA—even to his alma mater.
Finally,there's a difference between the two programs. Former coach Joanne McCallie resigned when she couldn't come to an agreement on a contract extension, and the school very publicly turned down overtures from former coach Gail Goestenkors. It was clear Duke wanted to go in a different direction, which makes it easier to choose someone with no past connection to the program.
Whenever Coach K steps down, it's doubtful a similar appetite to bypass the program's past will be there.
Still, the connection is there, and it bore fruit on Duke’s most recent coaching vacancy. It will be something to watch when the time comes.
