All Business

By Jim Sumner, GoDuke the Magazine

“This is unprecedented for any women's basketball team to have three graduate students playing as much as they will. We're excited, we're proud of them and we'll work it out any way we need to.”

That's Joanne P. McCallie talking about her 2017-18 Duke women's basketball team. Duke has three key players enrolled in the Fuqua School of Business Master of Management Studies (MMS) program, an intensive 10-month course of study designed for recent graduates.

How did the fortunes of McCallie's 11th Duke team become so tied to grad school?

Rebecca Greenwell, Lexie Brown and Bego Faz Davalos all traveled different routes to the same location.

Greenwell is in her fifth year at Duke. She took a medical hardship her first year, following knee surgery.

Brown played two seasons at Maryland before transferring to Duke and sitting out the required post-transfer season. This is her third year at Duke, her second on the court.

Davalos is a more interesting tale, McCallie's first grad student transfer. Davalos graduated from Fresno State last spring with a degree in business administration marketing but had a year of eligibility remaining. Fresno State does not have a graduate program in that area and Duke does.

Duke was interested, especially after learning that potential redshirt senior post Lynee Belton would not play her final year due to chronic knee problems; she's now a student-coach.

“We searched it out and we benefitted from Fuqua being such an attractive graduate school,” McCallie says.

Davalos did the research on her end and contacted Duke.

“I was just looking for the next chapter. Duke had this opportunity and I just took it.”

The trio share classes and study groups, which Davalos says has helped her transition, both on and off the court.“

Every class is hard,” she notes. “But my teammates (Greenwell and Brown) are with me and we take every challenge together. Our relationship got real strong, real quick because every day we face two challenges together, in the classroom and on the court.”

“It's definitely a transition we've had to get used to,” Greenwell adds. “It's more intense. It's a lot to balance but we're making the most of it and it's really going well. You definitely have to put more time into it, more energy because the subject matter is a lot tougher. It takes a lot out of you. But it's an awesome program. I'm learning a lot. I'm meeting awesome people.”

Brown agrees.“It is a huge time drain. But it's been a lot of fun. I've met a lot of really cool people. The professors are great. It's fun being in a new environment.” On the court, Greenwell and Brown are known commodities for Duke fans, both All-ACC performers last season, Brown a third-team AP All-America last season and the 2018 ACC preseason player of the year.

The 5-9 Brown led Duke with 18.3 points per game last season and is one of the nation's most disruptive defenders.

Her backcourt running mate returns to the roster this season will not see the floor. Junior Kyra Lambert suffered a knee injury in last season's NCAA Tournament and announced this week she will not play this season.

Brown says Lambert's absence will be felt most on the defensive end.

“I've become our defensive leader,” she explains. “Me and Kyra kind of split that job last season but when there needed a stop to be made or an adjustment to be made, Kyra made that adjustment. Now, it's me. I have to exert more energy on the defensive end, which I love. I just hope people follow my lead.”

Greenwell came to Duke as a shooter and averaged over 16 points per game last season. But the 6-1 wing has diversified her game. She led Duke with 6.4 rebounds per game last season and feels comfortable initiating the offense.She says Duke has the ability to overcome the absence of Lambert.

“It's definitely a big loss. Kyra definitely brought the energy to the floor, especially defensively. We're a lot deeper this year . . . and the freshmen are very talented, so hopefully we can make up for her absence with new talent.”

Davalos is more of a mystery. She's 6-3, a native of San Luis Potoso, Mexico. She was very effective last season at Fresno State, her 11.2 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game among the nation's leaders; she also averaged almost 15 points per game.Her teammates use words like “tenacious” and “energetic” to describe her play. “She can clean up our mistakes on defense,” Brown says. “She's a vocal leader.”

Her self-assessment?

“I love defense. I love blocking shots. I love rebounding. I look for the best passes, the best opportunities on the court.”

A wild card perhaps, but no more than 6-2 sophomore Leaonna Odom, an athletic combo forward who seems to be putting it all together after a promising but erratic freshman season.

“She has a different mindset this year,” Greenwell says. “She's working harder this year. I think there will be some games when she takes off. She's a beast athletically. She can just go all day.”

McCallie has an interesting analogy for Odom.

“I think she's using her gifts better,” says the coach. “She's understanding what she can do. I think she knows how good she could be but committing to becoming the best she can be is difficult for her. She's much more confident and can do more things. I think she's done a better job of ball-handling. Her decision-making is better. She's percolating. She's like good coffee. She's going to percolate and then go kaboom and there's going to be a richness to her game.”

Greenwell and Odom are sufficiently versatile that McCallie has options, options that she loves. She can go big or small, fast-break or half-court.

One possibility is to go small, with freshman guard Mikalya Boykin filling Lambert's spot and Odom staying inside.

Once the top recruit in her class, the 5-9 Boykin missed two full seasons with knee problems but returned last season with a vengeance, averaging 37 points per game and leading Clinton High School to the North Carolina 2A state championship.“She's doing great,” McCallie says of Boykin. “She's gotten her body ready. She's turning corners now. It's an aggressiveness thing for her, learn things but without slowing her down. I don't like her deferring. We want her to hunt everything, shots, rebounds, steals.”

But Duke also has the ability to move Odom to the wing, Greenwell to guard and play two bigs. Davalos and 6-4 senior Erin Mathias are adept passers.

“The passing thing is definitely going to be fun for us because we have a lot of posts who can pass,” Mathias says. “There's just something about that post-buddy thing that feels so good.”McCallie says that the 6-4 Mathias is more fluid and decisive this year, “growing into her body.”

True freshmen Jade Williams and Madison Treece and redshirt freshman Emily Schubert add post depth. Williams is a 6-5 McDonald's All-American with advanced ball skills. McCallie says she just needs to adjust to the work level of college to start making major contributions.

There's depth on the perimeter. Versatile Haley Gorecki returns after a season-and-a-half of injury-induced absences, able to play any of the perimeter slots. Junior wing Faith Suggs and freshman guard Jayda Adams are shooters.

McCallie calls Suggs perhaps the most improved player on the team and says she needs to be ready when Duke needs a shooter off the bench.

McCallie says Duke will use all of the many available options, while relying on the leadership of the graduate students.

“We're staying with them and adjusting. We'll do whatever they have to do to feel balanced and healthy and rested. We're trying to be a special team, trying to be a distinguished team.”

Players Mentioned

Jayda Adams

Lexie Brown

Bego Faz Davalos

Haley Gorecki

Rebecca Greenwell

Kyra Lambert

Erin Mathias

Leaonna Odom

Emily Schubert

Faith Suggs

Madison Treece

Jade Williams

Duke information