SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One might assume that Duke’s long journey out to California would put the Blue Devils out of sorts. It’s a three-hour time difference and around a six-hour flight from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Sacramento International — with different practice gyms and a totally new stadium awaiting the third-seeded Blue Devils on the other end of the journey.
But for Duke head coach Kara Lawson, the trip to Sacramento was, in a sense, a homecoming. Dotted throughout the Golden 1 Center Friday evening, intermixed with the blues, whites, purples and golds of Duke and LSU fans was a different shade of violet — the color of the WNBA’s since-folded Sacramento Monarchs. Lawson played seven years in the city for the Monarchs, winning a championship with the team in 2005. She was also a broadcaster for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings during her time in California, doing the job concurrently with her role as a player thanks to different offseasons.
Even more than a decade and a half later, Lawson was more than comfortable being back in the City of Trees. She demonstrated as much Friday night, coaching the Blue Devils to an 87-85 upset win against No. 2 seed LSU — with the help of a buzzer-beater by guard Ashlon Jackson. Jackson, notably, has been previously photographed pregame wearing a Lawson Monarchs jersey as an homage to her coach’s days as a player.
“I think anytime you can have a victory in a place that means something to you, yeah, it’s definitely a little more special,” Lawson said after the game. [Lawson’s players] don’t even remember me playing. I think they know I played, but they don’t really remember me playing. So for them it’s just an opportunity to get to a game that they can play to go to the Final Four. But for me, yeah, it’s special to win a game here in this arena.”
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‘So special to me’
Even in a different stadium than where Lawson played and broadcasted (during her time, both the Kings and the Monarchs played in the older, smaller, ARCO Arena), much of the arena staff stayed the same. It seemed like those who stuck around never forgot Lawson, even after she left town and the Monarchs were unable to stay afloat long-term. From the security staff to the elevator operators, familiar faces abounded.
“This place is so special to me. I’m telling you, so much juice behind the scenes. You’ve got no idea,” Lawson said in her morning availability Saturday. “I’m walking in today. They’re checking our bags. The security guy’s going crazy. His name’s Michael, he’s giving me a hug, and he’s going, ‘Let’s go baby, we’ve got one more game.’”
Even outside the stadium, Lawson has been recognized as one of Sacramento’s sports icons. A place with such a rich basketball history (and without much else in the way of trophies) rarely forgets a face, and she’s no exception. Out and about in the city, fans remember the championship she brought home more than 20 years ago.
“You walk down the street and people are gassing you up, man. You feel great. And that’s why I feel good, I feel ready to go,” Lawson said. “The support here is unbelievable. And it’s palpable.”
Lawson is a product of the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia) area and Pat Summitt’s legendary Tennessee program, but she also did a lot of her growing up in Sacramento — it’s where she did her first work as an analyst and how she broke into the coaching sphere. She got to watch college shootarounds and NBA practices as part of her broadcasting role, giving a well-known basketball junkie even more exposure to the game.
Now in her return, Lawson’s local connections have paid dividends. Former Monarchs general manager Jerry Reynolds — who has a banner honoring him in the Golden 1 Center — visited Duke’s practice Thursday. She also shouted out the contributions of a few longtime Kings scouts and assistants to her progression from playing to broadcasting to coaching.
“Scotty Stirling, an old Kings scout, he taught me a lot about the game,” Lawson said. “Pete Carrill was here. He used to give me VHS tapes and say, ‘Go watch this offense and come back and tell me what you think.’”
‘Make them proud’
With one game down and one to go in Sacramento, Lawson and her Duke program will look to continue a meteoric rise to the upper echelons of college basketball. Since the 2022-23 season, the Blue Devils have each year consecutively finished in a later round of the NCAA Tournament. To continue that trend, the squad from Durham, N.C., will need to take down a red-hot and top-seeded UCLA squad fresh off a blowout victory over Minnesota.
Duke already faced the Bruins once this season during a Thanksgiving week showdown at the Players Era Championship, and the Blue Devils lost ugly — even without superstar Lauren Betts playing. And while the game’s location in California will mean that UCLA will almost certainly have the larger contingent of fans in attendance Sunday, Lawson can rely on one meaningful base of local supporters: just about anyone wearing a purple Sacramento Monarchs jersey.
“I feel it. I feel it right now. I feel it from the city,” Lawson said. “And it’s very meaningful to be back and to feel that and to hopefully make them proud.”