DULUTH, GA ― Duke head coach Kara Lawson believes the ACC is underrecognized nationally. She wants more acknowledgement for the league and its players.
‘There’s so much quality in our league. For whatever reason, our league doesn’t garner the same amount of headlines as other leagues, and our players don’t garner the same amount of headlines as other players, but the quality here is really high,’ Lawson said on Saturday after her team held off Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
‘Look at [Taina Mair] to my left. That’s one of the best point guards in the country. You just have to watch the games to realize that. She’s a winner, and she competes, and she wins. She plays both sides of the ball, and she does whatever we need to win the game. Somehow, that quality has gotten lost in how we evaluate players.’
Lawson said the most important stat for a point guard is winning. True to form, with under two minutes remaining in regulation, Duke was up by just one point when Mair made a critical 3-pointer to push Duke up by four. The Blue Devils advanced to the ACC Tournament Championship for the second consecutive year and will face Louisville at noon on Sunday (ESPN).
Lawson wasn’t the only ACC coach who recently asked for more national recognition. Louisville head coach Jeff Walz also wants more acknowledgement.
‘When we get a narrative, we stick with it. We aren’t very good, at as stories develop and teams develop, of talking about them. And we’re not the only team,’ Walz said.
‘We’re gonna beat that dead horse as long as we can. That’s just kinda what we do in women’s basketball. So, it doesn’t surprise me.’
Lawson said the ACC helped grow her team because of the level of competition, but many point to Duke’s non-conference schedule as a reason for the team’s success.
‘I don’t know if the schedule made us win today or not, but I know it’s gotten us to this point, and we grew to where we are now because of the schedule. Not just the non-conference, [but] also the league,’ Lawson said.
‘I want to say this about our league because we go against some of the top teams and the top coaches in the country in our league, and everyone wants to talk about our non-conference schedule and how that prepared us. Our league prepared us, too. The ACC prepares you. You go against top players. That’s how you grow and get better.’
