Duke Opens Season Tuesday with Green Bay

The Opening Tip

Duke is coming off a banner season that saw the Blue Devils win both the ACC reguular season and tournament titles and advance to the Elite Eight. Duke finished 27-9 overall and ranked fifth in the final AP poll. The Blue Devils are ranked fourth in the AP and USA Today/WBCA preseason polls and were picked by the league's head coaches and Blue Ribbon Panel as the favorite to win the ACC again this season. Toby Fournier headlines the Blue Devils on the Preseason All-ACC team, garnering the second most votes behind Preseason Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo. Autumn Fleary and Bella earned Preseason All-Freshman Team nods with Duke being the only school to have two rookies represented.
Duke opens the 2026-27 season at home, hosting 2026 Horizon League Champion Green Bay. It is the second meeting between the programs with the first matchup coming Jan. 2, 1991. Duke defeated the Phoenix 70-59 inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils are 5-1 in season openers under head coach Kara Lawson with the lone setback coming against No. 16 Baylor in Paris, France last season. Duke has not lost its first game inside Cameron since a conference setback to Virginia Tech, Nov. 17, 1998.
Duke returns three starters and nine players from last year's ACC Championship team and welcomes the return of the 2025 fourth-ranked recruit Emilee Skinner from injury. Additionally, Lawson welcomed Texas transfer and the No. 5 recruit from the 2025 class Aaliyah Crump along with a talented freshman class. The collection of Autumn Fleary (13), Bella Flemings (18), Sanai Green (31) and Taylor Sofilkanich (49) is ranked fourth in ESPN's class rankings.

Opening Day Notes

Duke enters the season ranked fourth by Charlie Creme in the ESPN preseason rankings. The Blue Devils also come in at No. 4 in the preseason AP poll. It is the highest a Duke team has been ranked entering a season since starting the 2013-14 campaign ranked second.
Head coach Kara Lawson is 5-1 in season openers with the lone loss coming to No. 16 Baylor in Paris last season.
Duke returns three starters and nine letterwinners from last year's squad. The Blue Devils lost double-digit scorers Taina Mair and Ashlon Jackson to graduation, but welcome Texas transfer Aaliyah Crump and the nation's fourth-ranked recruiting class.

Preseason Honors

The Blue Devils were picked to win the ACC in a vote of the league's head coaches and a Blue Ribbon panel. Duke earned 49 first-place votes with Louisville coming in second with 22.
Toby Fournier was voted to the Preseason All-ACC Team, garnering the second most votes. Freshmen Autumn Fleary and Bella Flemings were voted to the Preseason All-ACC Freshman Team. Duke was the lone program to have multiple players on the six-player rookie team.
A quartet of Blue Devils - Toby Fournier, Riley Nelson, Jadyn Donovan and Arianna Roberson earned mentions on the various Naismith Starting 5 Watch Lists.

Toby Fournier
                Preseason All-ACC
                Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Women's College Player
                of the Year Watch List
                Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Watch List
                The Athletic Preseason All-America Second Team
Riley Nelson
                Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Watch List
Arianna Roberson
                Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Watch List
Jadyn Donovan
                Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Watch List
Bella Flemings & Autumn Fleary
                Preseason ACC All-Freshman

Breaking Down Duke's 2026-27 Schedule

The Blue Devils face a challenging schedule again in 2026-27, taking on five AP top 25 opponents in their non-conference slate. Duke will face four of the top six in the preseason poll, including Nos. 1 UConn, No. 2 South Carolina, No. 3 Southern California. The Blue Devils also take on No. 6 Texas and No. 11 UCLA.
Only UConn and South Carolina are scheduled to play more preseason top-25 opponents in non-conference play with the Huskies having nine on the list and South Carolina eight. Both of those teams are playing 32 regular season games compared to Duke's 29.
Five ACC teams are listed in the AP preseason top 25 - No. 4 Duke, No. 7 Louisville, No. 12 North Carolina, No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 25 NC State - giving Duke a total of nine top-25 contests when the season starts. The AP preseason poll consists of six from the SEC, nine from the Big Ten, four out of the Big 12 and UConn out of the Big East.

Chart Climbers

Toby Fournier will be climbing the Duke charts in a host of categories this season. The Toronto native hit the 1,000-point benchmark in her 66th career game, making her the fifth fastest Blue Devil to reach 1,000 career points. She sits behind Chris Moreland (50), Lexie Brown (53), Alana Beard (56) and Katie Meier (62).
Fournier has 117 blocks in her two seasons leaving her 15 shy of taking over the No. 10 spot from Mistie Bass and 79 away from moving into the top five. She had 78 denials last season.
Delaney Thomas enters the season with 823 career points. She is on pace to become the 40th Blue Devil to reach 1,000 points, needing just 177. She finished last season with 396.

#GoDuke

Players Mentioned

Aaliyah Crump

Jadyn Donovan

Autumn Fleary

Bella Flemings

Toby Fournier

Sanai Green

Ashlon Jackson

Taina Mair

Riley Nelson

Arianna Roberson

Emilee Skinner

Taylor Sofilkanich

Delaney Thomas

Duke information

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