Duke women's hoops news

Roster solidifying as high-profile opener announced

I don’t know what’s on your calendar for November 3 but I suspect it’s not as cool as what the Duke women’s basketball team will be up to.

Duke is opening its 2025-’26 season against Baylor that day. Baylor is a periennial national power and all that, so a good opening test for Duke.

But as real estate agents say, location, location, location. Duke and Baylor will be opening in the City of Lights. Paris. The one in France, not Texas.

Vanderbilt and California will be playing in the other game, tip-off times TBD.

Now, seeing it in person is going to cost you, well, if you have to ask . . .

But we have clarity on the roster that Duke will be taking over the Big Pond to take on the Baylor Bears in the Oui-Play Paris 2025 Classic.

You’re familiar with the in door and out door near the kitchens of restaurants, the better to keep your server from bouncing your shrimp scampi off the floor. Since the 2024-’25 season ended the out door has been the only operational door in the Duke women’s hoops restaurant, a quartet of players leaving via the portal, with no one coming in.

That’s changed.

The portal addition is Hailey Johnson, a 5-11 guard from Pepperdine. She’ll be a grad student.

Before you get too excited, it should be noted that Johnson missed all of last season with an injury and scored 21 points in 31 games the two seasons before then. She made 23% of her shots at Pepperdine.

If she moves the needle it likely will be in practice.

Anna Wikstrom is the more intriguing addition. She’s also 5-11 but her similarities with Johnson end about there. Wikstrom hails from Bergen, Norway and has excelled in assorted EuroBasket play. She averaged 16.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game last season in leading Ulriken Eagles to an 18-2 record and a league championship.

She averaged 15.4 points per game for Norway in the FIBA U18 Eurobasket competition. One observer on X described her as having a “ strong, mid-range, deadly from 3 and fearless at the rim. A great playmaker and active defender.”

Looks good on paper. Especially the active defender part.

Wikstrom and Johnson join a guard contingent that also includes rising seniors Ashlon Jackson, Taina Mair and Emma Koabel and incoming freshman Emilee Skinner.

I’ve seen Jackson projected as a top-10 pick in the 2026 WNBA draft and at her best she certainly can and has played at that level. If she can play at that level consistently, this will be her team.

We all have a pretty good idea what Mair and Koabel can and cannot do.

But among this group it’s Skinner who most intrigues me. She’s another 5-11 combo guard, from Millville, Utah, not exactly a Duke recruiting hot spot. Skinner had a game-best [tied] seven assists in the McDonald’s All-Star game, in only 19 minutes. Who does that, passing in an all-star game?

Skinner is a top-five recruit and will test her mettle in the 2025 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup, set to begin July 12 in Brno, Czechia.

Skinner has already played for team USA in the U17 competition.

Kara Lawson excelled at guard in college, the pros and international competition and she’s never had a college guard talent like Skinner. This could be something special, very special.

Will Jackson, Mair, Koabel, Skinner and Wikstrom be splitting 80 minutes per game at the 1 and 2 or at least a portion of 120 minutes at the 1, 2 and 3.

I suspect the latter.

Riley Nelson is the variable here. She’s a 6-2 redshirt sophomore, a transfer from Maryland, a McDonald’s All-American with a reputation as a shooter. A bigger replacement for Reigan Richardson?

Perhaps. But we haven’t seen her actually play since January of 2024, when she went down with a knee injury. Nelson made 3 of 16 from beyond the arc as a Terp, which doesn’t exactly scream, great shooter.

Small sample size to be sure. Can she play the kind of defense Lawson wants? If not, we’ll see a lot of three-guard lineups next season.

There may not be much room for Nelson to play inside. Duke returns five post players, including redshirt freshman Ari Roberson, who missed all of last season with a knee injury. Roberson is 6-4 and the only “true” center on the team, whatever that means. But again, will she be 100% after a year off? Rust never sleeps and all that.

In her absence Duke used a four-player post rotation, all of whom return this season. Jadyn Donovan, Delaney Thomas and Jordan Wood will be juniors, Toby Fournier a sophomore.

Five post players is a lot. Can one--or more--move to the wing?

TBD. At a listed 6-0 tall, Donovan might be the best candidate. She’s an elite defender and rebounder. She led Duke in rebounds and blocks last season, not easy for a six-footer.

But in two seasons at Duke she’s never attempted a 3-pointer and her foul-shooting percentage is hovering around 40%. Until she shows some perimeter offensive skills, keeping her inside might be the most rational allocation of resources.

Thomas is 6-3, an efficient scorer on the blocks and more than capable of defending bigger players. Thomas hit 5 of 13 from beyond the arc as a freshman but missed her only 3-pointer last season. Best keep her inside.

Wood is 6-4 but was recruited as a wing. Assuming Roberson is able to give Duke some quality minutes inside, Wood could move to the wing next season.

Which leaves us with Fournier. The 6-2 Ontario native told me last season that she sees herself becoming a wing at Duke but didn’t give a timetable. She’s 6-2, quick as the proverbial cat and a monster in transition. She made 6 of 14 from beyond the arc last season, the best percentage (43%) on the team, albeit on not all that many attempts. Is there more there?

But she’s also the best back-to-the-basket, low-post scorer I’ve seen at Duke in ages. She’s not perfect. She travels too much and only had 14 assists on the season. By comparison, Thomas had 34, Donovan a robust 78.

I realize there’s more positional flexibility in today’s game then the one that was codified as having five positions. But inside and outside seems like a rational distinction and where and how Duke uses Fournier next season will be something to watch.

Jackson, Fournier, maybe Skinner, three players with a chance to be star-level players.

Kara Lawson also is going to be busy this summer, coaching the 2025 USA Women’s AmeriCup team in Chile.

But work back home will continue to be done in her absence and questions will start to be answered. Duke returns seven rotation players from last season, has a couple of McDonald’s All-Americans coming online after injuries and a stunning top-five talent entering the program. Three seniors and three juniors have had multiple years in Lawson’s system. Defense travels and few teams defend like Duke.

Lawson has been building the program, an NCAA Tournament appearance, an NCAA win, a Sweet Sixteen, an agonizingly narrow loss in the Elite Eight. There’s no guarantee Duke takes the next step next season. But the talent is there, the experience is there, the coaching is there.

Duke will always have Paris and we should know more by the time the flight touches back home at RDU.