ChronChat: Predicting the 2022-23 Duke women's basketball season
(11/05/22 10:09pm)
With Duke's season right around the corner, five of The Chronicle's beat writers predict all things Blue Devil basketball.
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With Duke's season right around the corner, five of The Chronicle's beat writers predict all things Blue Devil basketball.
CARY, N.C.—Soccer is a complicated game. As the most popular sport in the world, played for nearly a millennium, there are more strategies, skills and rules than any one person could ever hope to learn.
2021-22 record: 20-14, 9-9 in the SEC
The ACC announced its end-of-season awards Wednesday, and for the second year in a row, Blue Devils have won the highest awards from the nation’s best conference.
As the college basketball season looms, it's finally time for the Blue Zone to preview the 2022-23 Duke women's basketball roster. We previously looked at Bo Shaffer, Emma Schmidt, Jiselle Havas, Lee Volker, Imani Lewis, Emma Koabel, Vanessa de Jesus Mia Hiede, Kennedy Brown, Shay Bollin, Jordyn Oliver, Reigan Richardson, Taya Corosdale, Ashlon Jackson, Elizabeth Balogun and Shayeann Day-Wilson. We wrap up with Celeste Taylor:
As the college basketball season looms, it's finally time for the Blue Zone to preview the 2022-23 Duke women's basketball roster. We previously looked at Bo Shaffer, Emma Schmidt, Jiselle Havas, Lee Volker, Imani Lewis, Emma Koabel, Vanessa de Jesus and Mia Heide. Next up is Kennedy Brown:
Senior Day is always an occasion for celebration. The Blue Devils' autumn struggles meant little, as, one-by-one, members of Duke’s class of 2023 were honored at midfield, their families there to greet them as the PA read off career accomplishments. Sarah Piper’s shutout games, Emmy Duerr’s NCAA tournament-debut brace, Ruthie Jones’ historic goals-against average, Sophie Jones’ numerous accolades—whether they were likely off to the NWSL or to grad school, it was a chance to inject a little positivity near the end of the regular season.
As the college basketball season looms, it's finally time for the Blue Zone to preview the 2022-23 Duke women's basketball roster. We previously looked at Bo Shaffer, Emma Schmidt, Jiselle Havas and Lee Volker. Next up is Imani Lewis:
Nothing truly says it’s basketball season like the announcement of preseason awards. And for some reason, the ACC’s official preseason awards count my input just as much as reigning WNBA Finals MVP Chelsea Gray and four-time AP Coach of the Year Muffet McGraw.
There’s a principle every coach has to tell their players: you have to do your job better than the refs do theirs. The message is that you need to do everything in your power to win the game so that third parties can’t affect the outcome. Implicit in that is an understanding that the coaches will coach better than the refs will referee.
With chaos reigning across the ACC this month, the Blue Devils’ challenge was simple: Beat Virginia, and they would control their own destiny in the fight for the conference’s regular-season championship.
A hallmark of Duke's program has been its schematic shapeshifting; over the past five years, the Blue Devils have played in a standard 4-3-3, a 4-3-3 with wingbacks, a 4-4-2 box, a 4-3-3 with wingbacks again, a 5-1-2-2, a 4-2-3-1, a 5-4-1 and a 3-4-2-1.
RALEIGH—When it rains, it pours.
Twenty-three years ago, Michele Van Gorp became the first former Blue Devil to play in a WNBA Finals. Fourteen years ago, Wanisha Smith became the first former Blue Devil to play for a WNBA championship team. Ten years ago, Karima Christmas-Kelly became the first former Blue Devil to play in and win a WNBA Finals-clinching game. Six years ago, Chelsea Gray and Alana Beard became the first pair of former Blue Devils to secure a WNBA title as teammates.
As the clock ticked down toward zero, it looked as if the Blue Devils would be taking another tough-luck decision this month. After a rough first half, they had controlled nearly every minute of the second 45, and a few inches here and there had been the difference between a scoreless draw and a multi-goal lead.
The WNBA finals are set, and a former Blue Devil is on each team’s roster. The Blue Zone takes a look at how Duke alumni have fared across the W this year:
Year after year, Duke women’s soccer finds itself on the verge of breaking through into the sport’s truly elite tier and coming out with a loss. Be it outplaying all-time greats and still losing, getting eliminated through self-inflicted mistakes or squandering home-field advantage, the Blue Devils trying to break into women’s soccer’s upper echelon has often seemed a Sisyphean task.
Last year, Duke rolled into Chapel Hill and handed North Carolina its first Tobacco Road rivalry loss since 2015. After the game, Blue Devil captain Caitlin Cosme declared, “There's a new era, and it's a Duke era. And I never want to go back.”
In 2019, the Blue Devils had a very good defense and good shot-creation, but poor finishing. In 2020, the Blue Devils had an excellent defense, but struggled with both shot-creation and finishing. In 2021, the Blue Devils had an excellent defense, excellent shot-creation and good finishing.
One of the comforting things about life is that most of its greatest mysteries will inevitably be solved. “Whatever happened to Amelia Earhart?” She probably crash-landed near Kiribati. “Why is the sky blue?” Because blue light stays in the atmosphere the longest. “When is a door not a door?” When it’s ajar.