After loss to LSU, Duke’s women’s basketball struggles mirror ACC as a whole

After LSU’s women’s basketball team dismantled Duke, 93-77, on Thursday night, Kim Mulkey began her postgame press conference by congratulating the team she had just beaten.

“That’s as good as I have seen them play all year,” Mulkey said. “They jumped on us like white on rice.”

Preseason favorites to win the ACC title, the Blue Devils surged to a 17-3 lead before the Tigers responded. Still, Kara Lawson praised her team’s competitiveness after the game. The compliments from both coaches were nice, sure, but Duke senior guard Ashlon Jackson didn’t sugarcoat where her team stands.

“We’re in the mud right now,” she said.

Plenty of women’s hoops squads across the ACC could say the same. The league — which opened the year with five AP top-25 teams — was thoroughly routed in the third annual ACC/SEC Challenge. The SEC won 13 of 16 matchups this week by an average of 12.7 points, underscoring a puzzling, choppy start for a conference accustomed to being the country’s deepest.

Duke (3-6) is emblematic of that turbulence. Lawson’s team returned four starters and ACC rookie of the year Toby Fournier from last year’s ACC championship squad that pushed South Carolina to the brink in the Elite Eight.

But the Blue Devils’ only wins have come against Holy Cross, Norfolk State and Liberty, and they entered Thursday 0-5 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents. A loss to West Virginia — which had only five available players (among them just one starter) in the second half after multiple ejections — has become the defining snapshot of Duke’s sputtering first month.

The Blue Devils, known for their stout defensive approach, have now surrendered 85 or more points three times, including 89 to a UCLA team missing All-American center Lauren Betts.

Still, as Lawson emphasized, Duke’s energy Thursday could be a turning point.

“Are you competing at a high level? Once we can do that consistently, we’re going to put ourselves in a great chance, in a great position, to win games,” Lawson said. “We haven’t done that consistently, and that’s why our record is what it is.”

Checking in on the Triangle teams

Duke isn’t the only Triangle team with subpar start.

N.C. State, picked second in the conference after last year’s ACC championship game appearance, has endured a difficult early slate — three of its first four opponents (including exhibitions) finished last season in the top 15. But the Wolfpack, 5-4, also lost to a mid-major opponent at home for the first time in a decade when they fell to Rhode Island in late November.

This is despite adding Vanderbilt transfer Khamil Pierre, who averaged over 20 points and nine rebounds last year.

“I think these players would rather play great games, big games, be on the big stage than playing all directional school games or whatever,” N.C. State coach Wes Moore said at ACC Tipoff in October. “I think they like that challenge. I think it prepares you. The ACC is unbelievable. It’s so strong. Eighteen great programs… we’ll learn early, and hopefully it’ll help us down the road.”

Coach Courtney Banghart’s North Carolina squad has been the lone Triangle bright spot. Picked to finish third in the ACC, the Tar Heels have handled business against lesser opponents and sit as the conference’s highest-ranked team in both the AP poll (11) and the NET (13).

UNC fell to No. 2 Texas in the top-ranked ACC-SEC Challenge matchup, but still boasts an 8-2 record overall.

League-wide slide for women’s hoops

The Triangle’s varied struggles are part of a larger ACC wobble.

The conference has had at least one top-10 team in every AP poll since December 2001, but this week marked the third straight poll without one. N.C. State and Duke aren’t the only teams that’ve absorbed jarring losses: Michigan blew out Notre Dame by 39, James Madison stunned Virginia Tech and UMBC (ironically, given what happened on the men’s side in 2018) toppled UVA.

The SEC, meanwhile, has performed as advertised. Six SEC teams remained unbeaten after the Challenge. The conference also boasts eight AP top-25 teams compared to three for the ACC.

Mulkey, though, said she didn’t need any cross-conference event to validate the SEC’s strength.

“We already know… look at the rankings,” she said. “Look at the people in our league. It is brutal.”

The men’s side of the Challenge offered a reminder of how quickly narratives can shift. After losing last year’s Challenge 14-2, the ACC trailed 9-7 this season. Duke beat defending national champion Florida. North Carolina went to Rupp Arena and left with a win over Kentucky.

Lawson said she hasn’t watched the women’s Challenge unfold — she’s too locked in on Duke — but echoed that message.

“Don’t be so quick to judge, because the basketball season is long,” Lawson said. “And it’s like a living and breathing organism that changes daily and weekly and monthly.”

Banghart put it more bluntly.

“I always say, let’s see when it’s all said and done,” Banghart said in a Zoom media availability earlier this week, “who’s advanced, how many teams did you see each round and what that looks like. As someone who has lived in the ACC now [for years]… the league will be just fine.”