Ivey, Lawson make rapid rises to top of ACC entering tourney
Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey and Duke’s Kara Lawson became first-time head coaches within months of each other early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
It didn’t take them long to build Atlantic Coast Conference winners.
Ivey’s 10th-ranked Fighting Irish edged Lawson’s 13th-ranked Blue Devils on the final day of the regular season for the No. 1 seed in this week’s league tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their programs are the headliners for the five-day event, which features No. 8 Virginia Tech and No. 18 North Carolina.
The third-year coaches have common steps in their journeys here.
Both played under legendary coaches, Ivey as a national championship winner under Notre Dame Hall of Famer Muffet Mcgraw and Lawson reaching three Final Fours under late Tennessee great Pat Summitt. Both played in the WNBA and were among the first women to earn NBA coaching positions in 2019, Lawson with the Boston Celticsand Ivey with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Both are among the small group of Black women leading major college programs, coming amid increased equality conversations in the sport from prominent voices such as two-time national champion Dawn Staley at South Carolina.
Notre Dame (24-4, 15-3 ACC) went 10-10 in Ivey’s first year, reached the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 last year and was picked to finish fourth in the ACC this year. But the Irish have the top seed for the first time since 2019 after Sunday’s win at Louisville, though the status of star guard Olivia Miles is uncertain after she suffered an apparent knee injury.
“This is a huge moment for our program,” Ivey said of the win, “and a huge moment for me as their coach.”
Duke (24-5, 14-4) failed to secure the top seed in Sunday’s home loss to rival UNC, but the Blue Devils’ climb remains swift.
Lawson’s first season spanned just four games before the team shut down amid the pandemic. Two years later, after significant transfer-portal work, Duke has its best ACC finish since 2014 after being picked to finish seventh.
SEC: South Carolina-lsu showdown looms
Another Southeastern Conference showdown is looming at the league tournament this week between undefeated No. 1 South Carolina and one-loss, No. 4 LSU.
The teams met Super Bowl Sunday in a highly anticipated game featuring two of the game’s biggest stars in reigning Associated Press Player of the Year Aliyah Boston for the Gamecocks and the Tigers’ Angel Reese. South Carolina shut down Reese — it was her only game this season without double figures in points and rebounds—inan88-64victory.
The beatdown left LSU coach Kim Mulkey a bit humbled: “It’s South Carolina, in my opinion, and everyone else.
The tournament opens in Greenville, South Carolina, on Wednesday.
The top four seeds — South Carolina (29-0), LSU (27-1), No. 3 Tennessee (21-10) and No. 4 Mississippi (22-7) — don’t play until Friday. The semfinals will be Saturday, with the championship
Sunday.
Pac 12: Looking to set record
The Pac-12 Conference is having likely its best women’s basketball season, which has a chance to get even stronger.
As the conference tournament gets underway Wednesday with four first-round games, the Pac-12 could place at least eight teams in the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12 sent seven teams in 2017, a conference high.
“I think from top to bottom we’re as strong as we’ve ever been,” said Rhonda Lundin Bennett, Pac-12 associate commissioner for women’s basketball and sports management.
Lundin Bennett was chairwoman of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball committee in 2018 and 2019. She also served on the committee from 201421, except for 2020, when COVID-19 wiped out NCAA Tournament.
She said the circumstances change year to year in how fields are put together, but there are general principles that remain the same such as strength of schedule and how well teams are playing late.