**BREAKING: Kara Lawson Joins Candice Scheyer on Duke Bench as Co-Head Coach – Immediate National Title Favorite Status Restored Overnight**
DURHAM – In a move that sent shockwaves through women’s college basketball before the sun came up on November 27, 2025, Duke University announced at 6:03 a.m. ET that two-time WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, and ESPN analyst Kara Lawson has been named co-head coach of the Duke women’s program, effective immediately, alongside reigning national champion head coach Candice Scheyer.
Yes, you read that correctly: co-head coach. In the same building. On the same sideline. With the same whistle.
The Blue Devils, already 6-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country after Scheyer’s historic 2024-25 national championship in only her second season as head coach, just added the most accomplished broadcasting mind in the sport and a former top-50 recruit who played under Pat Summitt at Tennessee.
Sources inside the program told The Chronicle moments after the announcement that the decision was finalized at 2:17 a.m. following a four-hour meeting in Scheyer’s office that included athletic director Nina King, university president Vincent Price, Jon Scheyer (Candice’s husband and the men’s head coach), and Lawson herself. The contract, described as “record-shattering” for an assistant or co-head role, reportedly includes a seven-figure base salary, full autonomy over offensive scheme, and a private jet for recruiting.
**Candice Scheyer’s statement was short and lethal:**
“I won a national title with the greatest staff in America. Now I get to coach every day with the greatest basketball mind I’ve ever been around. This isn’t about ego. This is about winning three more before either of us turns 45.”
**Lawson’s statement was even shorter:**
“I’m done talking about the game. I want to coach the game. At Duke. With Candice. Starting tonight.”
Tonight. As in the Phil Knight Legacy championship against No. 1 South Carolina at 9 p.m. ET in Portland. Lawson will be on the bench in navy warm-ups before the ink on her contract is dry.
The partnership is unprecedented in the modern era: two head coaches, equal titles, equal votes, one program. Sources say Scheyer will retain final say on lineups and rotations while Lawson will have complete control of offensive philosophy and in-game play-calling. Defensively, they will “tag-team” based on matchups, with Scheyer taking primary responsibility for post defense and Lawson handling perimeter schemes.
The timing could not be more dramatic. Duke is 6-0 with blowout wins over UConn, Texas, and Notre Dame already on the résumé. Sophomore phenom Hannah Hidalgo (the 2025 Preseason Player of the Year) reportedly FaceTimed Lawson at 3:42 a.m. Pacific Time with three words: “Let’s three-peat.”
But the question on every message board, every group chat, and every ACC coach’s mind is the same one screaming in bold caps across the internet right now:
**Can Scheyer repeat without diluting her own brilliance? Or does adding Lawson make the repeat inevitable?**
The skeptics are already out. One high-major head coach texted ESPN anonymously: “Candice just won a title at 36 years old with a roster she built from scratch. Why share the throne now?” Another assistant from a rival program: “Kara’s never recruited at this level. Candice carried that program on her back. This feels like ego, not strategy.”
The believers are louder.
Lawson, 44, has spent the last six years breaking down film at a level that made NBA coaches nervous. Her “Lawson’s Laboratory” segments on SportsCenter became appointment viewing for coaches nationwide. She called the 2025 men’s Final Four for TBS and spent every timeout in the Duke film room with Candice Scheyer anyway, texting X’s and O’s from the broadcast table.
She won a national title as a player in 2008 at Tennessee. She won a WNBA title as an assistant with the Boston Celtics in 2024 (yes, the Celtics). She has spent the last 18 months privately telling friends she was “done pretending television was enough.”
And Scheyer? The youngest coach to win a Division I women’s title since Kim Mulkey in 2005 has reportedly told recruits for weeks that “something historic” was coming. Five-star forward Aaliyah Chavez, who decommitted from Oklahoma last night, has already changed her social header to a photo of Scheyer and Lawson together with the caption “Locked In.”
The numbers are obscene. Duke returns Hidalgo, Toby Fournier (2025 ACC Freshman of the Year), and Jadyn Donovan. They add Chavez, consensus No. 1 recruit Sienna Betts (who flipped from UCLA this morning), and USC transfer JuJu Watkins, who entered the portal at 11:59 p.m. last night with the note “Family.”
Yes, JuJu Watkins to Duke is happening. Multiple sources confirmed the paperwork is already filed.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, on her radio show this morning: “I need to speak to my athletic director about co-head coaches. Maybe three of them.”
Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey: “That’s not fair. That’s just not fair.”
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, asked if he’d ever consider a co-head coach: “Only if Sheryl Swoopes and Maya Moore wanted the job. And even then I’d have to think about it.”
The ACC schedule tips off in eight days. Duke opens with Virginia Tech in Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 4. Tickets that were $60 on the secondary market at 5 a.m. are now listed at $1,200 and climbing.
Candice Scheyer, who grew up in Durham idolizing Lindsey Harding and Alana Beard, who took over a program that hadn’t been to a Final Four since 2013, who won the 2025 national title with a 40-0 record and a 41-point championship-game demolition of Iowa, just pulled off the most audacious flex in women’s basketball history.
Can she repeat?
The question is no longer if Duke will repeat.
The question is now whether anyone else will even make the Final Four.
Welcome to the Lawson-Scheyer era.
It starts tonight.
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