Coming into this season, Duke women’s basketball had a talented group of returners, an outstanding head coach and a strong freshman class. However, the team still had one glaring question.
How would it replace its two graduated centers?
Two and a half months into the season, it has its answer. The journey here wasn’t easy. Head coach Kara Lawson recruited Arianna Roberson to be the center of the future, but the San Antonio native injured her knee before the season.
Roberson’s absence opened the door for one of Delaney Thomas or Toby Fournier — and potentially Jadyn Donovan as a smaller option — to emerge as the team’s center for the season. However, none of the three started at the center position in college before, so no matter what, the team would likely be fighting uphill battles in the paint for the majority of the season.
“All my forwards are freshmen and sophomores,” Lawson said. “They're all young, but your forwards have to be the anchors of your defense. They're the ones that call the scheme and call the coverage. They're the ones that see what's going on, and they're the ones that communicate.”
During Sunday’s 74-49 win against Stanford, Thomas was the anchor Duke needed. The Blue Devils were facing one of the best forwards in the conference, Nunu Agara. Coming into the matchup, Agara was averaging 17.6 points per game while shooting at a 49.8% clip.
However, for the majority of the game, Thomas and Fournier quelled her hot hand. The pair held Agara to a meager 4-for-16 shooting. She still put points up on the jumbotron, but a majority of her production came from the free-throw line, knocking home seven charity shots.
“Delaney and Toby drew the assignment, and obviously [Agara’s] a load in there,” Lawson said. “She's a very physical and talented player, she can finish either way, and I thought they did a good job of just making her shots tough. That's all you can do, you have to make the shots tough and hope that she misses some of them.”
Thomas did that admirably, especially in the context that she never would have had this type of matchup last season. The Charles Town, W.Va., native was primarily a power forward last year, with Kennedy Brown and Camilla Emsbo holding down the paint.
“My mentor last year was Kennedy, and she was at the five, so I was constantly learning and taking information from both spots,” Thomas said. “I think she had a lot to do with that and helped me grow in that spot.”
It’s a hard position to grow into. As Lawson mentioned, the forwards are the most important players on a defense, but it takes a lot of learning to do so. There’s a certain type of instinct that the best paint defenders need, and Thomas has developed those intangibles admirably.
“She's grown into being someone that can instinctively make plays if they're off script,” Lawson said. “She's stronger than she was a year ago, she's more athletic than she was a year ago and she just plays really, really hard.”
Thus far into her tenure, the so-called “Kara Era” has been characterized by teams with outstanding defenses, but early this season, it was lacking compared to the precedent set. This situation was undoubtedly due to Emsbo and Brown’s departures, but now that Thomas and Fournier have stepped up, the defense has gotten back on track.
“Our defense overall, our paint defense, our perimeter defense, it's played really well these last two weeks,” Lawson said. “I don't know the numbers and how they rank relative to everybody else. I just know what my eyes see — we're playing [defense] at a really high level, and it's fun to watch.”
Even without the numbers in her hand, she was right. In the six games since Duke fell to South Florida in an upset loss, it has locked in on the defensive end of the court, allowing 103 field goals on 310 attempts, a measly 33.2% rate. Nationally, that defensive effort would be the second best in the country for the whole season, one point behind Kansas State.
With a defense full of fight and the best offense she’s coached in Durham, the sky's the limit for Lawson’s group, with Thomas leading the charge.
“I'm fortunate to coach a lot of competitors,” Lawson said. “I think that helps you in situations where you need people to figure it out and fight. And Delaney is going to fight”
The Blue Devils will look to continue this sound defensive stretch Thursday on the road against SMU.
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