Easy Call
Taina Mair thriving with Duke after her move through the transfer portal
Jim Sumner, GoDuke The Magazine
Taina Mair seemed to have a good thing going at Boston College. The Eagles’ point guard was playing in her hometown (she’s an alum of Brooks School in the Boston suburb of Dorchester). Family and friends could see her play with regularity.
Playing time wasn’t a concern. She averaged 36.6 minutes per game as a freshman last season, third in the ACC. It wasn’t usage. She had the ball in her hands virtually every possession. Her 6.6 assists per game trailed only Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles in the ACC. Mair made the All-ACC Freshman team. She says she got along fine with coaches and teammates.
She also led the ACC with 140 turnovers, not surprising considering her youth and high usage rate, but still an indication that improvement was possible.
Mair started playing formal basketball when she was around eight years old, inspired by sister Trayana, older by eight years and playing in high school.
Mair was playing travel AAU ball by middle school. She also played softball and soccer but says she never doubted that basketball was her next-level sport. “My mom said I was dribbling a basketball as far back as she can remember.”
Mair didn’t make a lot of national headlines. But she keyed Brooks to the 2022 NEPSAC Class B state championship and made all-state.
She stayed home, had a great freshman season and hit the transfer portal.
Mair thought she could do better. When she signed with her hometown school she told local media that her goal was to win a national championship. But Boston College went 16-17 last season and hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2006.
She also wanted personal growth.
“Where I saw myself in the future, with what I wanted to do, I wanted to play the highest level of play I could compete in and against,” she explains.
Enter Duke.
Kara Lawson certainly needed an infusion of talent after last year’s 26-7 season. Duke lost eight recruited players, including primary ball-handlers Shayeann Day-Wilson, Celeste Taylor and Jordyn Oliver, all of whom entered the portal and are playing elsewhere this season.
Lawson says she didn’t hesitate once she saw Mair’s name in the portal.
“I can't remember the timing of when I talked to her when she entered into portal. I mean, it's pretty fast and furious there and we were active with it so I'm sure it was not far after when she entered.”
What did Lawson see in Mair?
“What I did see was a player that had been through the rigors of the ACC, that started every game, that had done a good job of playmaking and had passing ability. She had the ability to score too. And so just talking to people around her and getting to know her and her family, I felt like it would be a great fit for us.”
What did Mair see in Lawson?
Mair is a point guard who wanted to get better at her craft and who better to help her than a coach who had excelled at the collegiate, professional and international level?
“She told me I was seeing the game in black and white and she would show me how to see the game in color,” Mair says of Lawson. “She told me she didn’t recruit a lot of players but she wanted me to be her point guard. She saw me, saw how my game could translate under her, her being my coach, being my mentor.”
Other schools pursued Mair but she says Duke was the easy call.
The expectation was that Mair would share the point guard spot with senior Vanessa de Jesus. But de Jesus suffered a knee injury over the summer and was ruled out for the season following surgery.
Mair could have been asked to play virtually the entire game at point. But Lawson wanted more versatility from Mair and more versatility from other perimeter options like Ashlon Jackson and Reigan Richardson.
Mair is still first among equals but there’s more of a point-guard-by-committee approach then she had at BC.
“I definitely feel comfortable, especially with my teammates,” Mair says. “Any of them can push it and go coast-to-coast. I trust that they’ll make the right plays. I can find a spot and wait for a kick-out. It’s something that I like about this team.”
Mair says she’s learned to play a faster brand of basketball then she played at Boston College.
“I knew there was going to be an adjustment,” she says. “But I like the style of play here, pushing it, not calling plays every time. It suits my game. It’s a perfect tempo, getting quick points. At the same time when I know it’s time to slow down and run a play, we can execute it.”
“We've challenged her to improve in transition and decision-making and playmaking,” Lawson adds. “We have different players that will bring it up in transition, not just the point guard, so getting her to run lanes so she can be the beneficiary of some of those kick-outs has been another thing we've tried to emphasize to her as well.”
No one plays for Lawson if they can’t play defense. Mair acknowledges that Lawson pushes her all the time to improve in that area.
“Just rotationally, being sharper and quicker to our rotations has to be better,” Lawson says. “But she has a good understanding of our scheme and what we're trying to do and a good feel so there hasn't been like extra work after practice for her because she's new or anything. She's been good and she's smart, too.”
Like any young player in a new environment there have been ups and downs. Louisville’s elite defense hounded her into six turnovers, while she shot 3-for-11 with four turnovers against top-ranked South Carolina.
But the highs have far outnumbered the lows. Mair scored 24 points in an 82-63 win over perennial mid-major power Florida Gulf Coast, had 21 points in an 81-75 win over her old school, and posted seven assists and five steals in an overtime win at Georgia in the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge.
Her best game to date might have come in a dominant 84-46 win over Georgia Tech, in which she had 11 points, eight assists, four rebounds and a steal in directing Duke to an offensive performance that included 50 percent shooting, 59 percent from beyond the arc.
“I hope that's a sign of her continuing to get more comfortable,” Lawson said of the Georgia Tech game.
Through 19 games Mair leads Duke in minutes played and assists, is tied for first in steals and third in points per game (10.7). She’s improved her shooting, both field goal and foul shooting, from last season and reduced her turnovers by 50 percent.
Lawson thinks the best is yet to come.
“I think T has been as advertised, been what we expected. She's a talented player that's still growing. She's just a sophomore in her first year in the system. It's been a lot that's thrown at her but she's tough, she's competitive. She loves the game, and she wants to be good and she wants to win.
“Everything that she's doing, I'm not surprised and I think there's other levels to where she can get to not only this season but beyond.”
Mair hasn’t formally established a major yet but says she’s going to major in sociology, with a minor in earth and climate sciences.
She might end up staying in basketball after she hangs up her shoes for the last time; point guards tend to become coaches, after all. She also thinks she could end up as a meteorologist.
But there’s plenty of basketball left to play for Duke and possibly the pros. Mair says that national championship goal is still on the table and she plans on becoming one of the nation’s best point guards.
This story originally appeared in the 15.6 issue of GoDuke The Magazine – January 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call 336-831-0767.