Season Expectations for the New Look Blue Devils

Charlotte, NC- The 2022 ACC Tip Off kick-started on Tuesday, October 11th hosted in Charlotte filled with players and coaches to represent their school and womens basketball.

Duke Blue Devils women’s coach Kara Lawson expressed her excitement for this season as well as improvements the team is looking forward to making to progress. Lawson introduced two of her players, sophomore transfer, Reigan Richardson, and senior, Celeste Taylor.

Richardson, from Charlotte, decided to bring her talents to her native state coming from playing her freshman year at Georgia. At Georgia, she averaged 5.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1 assist per game.

When asked how she plans to contribute to her new team and how to improve her game, she stated, “I plan on improving my mindset. Often times, I can become really hard on myself and in my head a lot so I want to be able to bring positive energy”. Being a sophomore and having to step up as a big time player may be fairly hard but Richardson seems to be comfortable & ready to work at her new home Duke.

Last season, Duke finished with a record of 7-11 in ACC play to finish in tenth place and 17-13 overall. Lawson anticipates that the team as a whole, rather than just one or two players, will share the scoring load. Duke’s top scorers from the previous season were Shayeann Day-Wilson (12.7 points per game) and Celeste Taylor (11.0 points per game.)

Having a good amount of returning players from last season is very beneficial to the upcoming season by players being able to have experience playing on an ACC level and lead their team to wins. However, Duke has gained four transfer students, one being sophomore Richardson, as well as rising graduate student from Tulane Mia Heide, Junior from Oregon State Kennedy Brown, and graduate student from Oregon State Taya Corosdale. 

Taylor is one of the nine returners for the Blue Devils who was present at the ACC Tip Off. Last season, she had to sit out for a month during ACC play after injuring her left shoulder in a game against Syracuse.

Being a senior, Taylor shared what her responsibility is this upcoming season. “I’m really looking forward to this season and being able to play with new talented players and elevating my game in a maturity aspect”. 

Prior to kicking off the 2022–23 regular season against North Carolina A&T on November 9 at 11 a.m., live on ACC Network Extra, Duke will play an exhibition game against Indiana University of Pennsylvania on November 5 at 1 p.m.