Duke women’s basketball announces Karen Lange as assistant coach

From the moment head coach Kara Lawson joined Duke, she has surrounded herself with high-quality assistants. And Tuesday, she made sure to continue that trend.

Duke announced former Georgia associate head coach Karen Lange as an assistant coach Wednesday, per release. A position had opened March 31 after Beth Cunningham became the head coach at Missouri State, and the program wasted little time in finding another renowned figure. Lange had spent the past seven years with the Bulldogs as associate head coach to Joni Taylor, who was hired away in March by Texas A&M. But instead of following Taylor, Lange headed north to Durham.

"I'm excited to become a part of the Duke family and [Lawson's] staff. I look forward to working to build on the Duke tradition and to compete in the ACC," Lange said in the team's Twitter post. "Duke is symbolic with excellence in every area and it has always been important to me to surround myself and my family with that kind of standard for success. Growing and impacting our young women along with helping Kara in any way possible is what I am committed to doing at Duke."

Lange joins an assistant staff that includes Winston Gandy, former Maryland director of recruiting operations and Washington Wizards coordinator of player development, and Tia Jackson, former Washington head coach and assistant at five other Power Five schools.