The beginning: Lawson was born and raised in Virginia and collected a boatload of hardware in high school hoops before playing for our first Legend of the Game — the one and only Pat Summitt — at Tennessee. During her collegiate career, Lawson reached three Final Fours and two championship games.

• The biggest lesson she learned from Summitt? “Holding players accountable to what their best is.” Lawson found that if you maintain a standard, athletes will hold themselves to it. True leadership.
• After graduation, Lawson enjoyed a 12-year pro career in the WNBA, not to mention a successful stint with the U.S. national team punctuated by winning Olympic gold in 2008.

Early career: Her playing days behind her, Lawson got her start as a broadcaster, calling plays as a studio analyst before becoming the first woman to work as a nationwide broadcast analyst for an NBA game in 2007. In 2017, she was named the primary TV analyst for the Washington Wizards, one of the first women to hold such a role. Blazing that trail.

• From there? More history. In 2019, impressed by her analyst skills, the Boston Celtics named Lawson the organization’s first-ever female assistant coach, kicking off a brief but incredibly impactful tenure in the Hub.

At the helm: After one season in Boston, Lawson left for the chance to lead the Blue Devils. Though they missed the tournament in her first full season at the helm, Duke advanced to the second round in 2022–23, buoyed by a lockdown defense.

• But it’s this year that the program fully blossomed under Lawson’s guidance, reaching their first Sweet 16 since 2018, and doing it as a No. 7 seed.
• From her viral speeches to her quick quips and unparalleled basketball knowledge, Lawson’s coaching legend is just beginning.

The beginning: Dan Hurley grew up in New Jersey in a basketball family: He played high school basketball for his father, Hall of Famer Bob Hurley, and hooped alongside his brother, former Duke and Sacramento Kings player Bobby Hurley, who now coaches Arizona State’s men’s team. Ball really is life.

• Dan continued his playing career in college competing for five seasons (including a redshirt year) at Seton Hall. But it was coaching where Hurley became the hoops icon he is today.

Early coaching days: Hurley’s first head coaching job was a nine-year stint at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, where he transformed the Gray Bees into one of the top high school programs in the nation.

• From there, he took on head collegiate jobs at Wagner College and the University of Rhode Island, with his brother Bobby serving as his assistant at both schools. All in the family.

At the helm: Hurley landed at UConn in 2018 and took over an ailing Huskies program. He needed just three seasons to bring them back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years, but the squad lost in the first round both times.

• Then came last year’s magic — Hurley’s Huskies (featuring his son, Andrew) rode a hot start all the way to the program’s fifth NCAA title, thanks in large part to their HC’s relentless commitment to winning.
• That same, shall we say, enthusiasm continued into this season, where UConn dominated their way to the No. 1 overall seed and back-to-back Final Fours.

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The beginning: A knee injury during her senior year of high school in Scarsdale, NY, piqued Lindsay Gottlieb’s interest in a coaching career. Fast-forward four years, and she was a student assistant coach and player during her senior season at Brown in 1998–99. A multi-tasking queen.

Early coaching days: After graduating, Gottlieb took a series of assistant coaching jobs before landing her big break: the HC job at UC Santa Barbara. She spun her success there into the top job at Cal, where she led the Golden Bears for eight amazing seasons, including a Final Four appearance in 2013.

• Then, the big leagues came knocking: In 2019, the Cleveland Cavaliers made her the first NCAA women’s HC to take an assistant coaching gig in the NBA. Huge.

At the helm: Gottlieb returned to the NCAA in 2021 when she took over as USC’s HC. She then willed the Trojans into a near-miraculous turnaround: They went 12-16 her first year, then 21-10 in her second season (which began 24 days after she gave birth to her second child, BTW), and are now 29-5 and counting. A Princess Mia–level glow-up.

• She certainly has game on both the sideline and in the locker room, but her greatest coaching feat took place this offseason, when she recruited JuJu Watkins, a freshman phenom who will set the college game’s standard for the next three years.
• With Watkins heading up the roster, the Coach of the Year finalist led the Trojans to a Pac-12 tournament win, a No. 1 seed, and with a win over UConn tomorrow, a Final Four berth. And even with all that success, the best is still yet to come.

The beginning: Third-year UNC men’s hoops HC Hubert Davis is a Tar Heel through and through. Born in Winston-Salem, NC, but raised just outside Washington, D.C. (where he went to high school with fellow UNC athlete and USWNT star Mia Hamm), Davis played for legendary UNC HC Dean Smith from 1988 to 1992.

• As a guard, Davis was quite the sharp shooter — he still owns UNC’s three-point percentage (3P%) career record. Davis went on to play 12 seasons in the NBA, where he remains second in career 3P%, behind Golden State Warriors HC Steve Kerr.

Early coaching days: After a stint as an ESPN analyst, Davis returned to Chapel Hill in 2012 as an assistant to another Tar Heel legend, HC Roy Williams. He quickly became Williams’ right-hand man, helping the Heels to five Sweet 16 appearances and the 2017 national title.

• When Williams retired in 2021, he handed Davis the keys to the kingdom, making Davis the program’s first Black HC.
• Davis is known for his close relationships with players, with his coaching philosophy being inspired by being a father of three.
• His passion for the game is also evident by his animated nature on the sidelines —his wife, Leslie, makes him wear an Oura ring to track his heart rate.

At the helm: Taking control of one of the sport’s most successful and prodigious programs is no small task, but from the beginning, Davis has worked to maintain Carolina’s on- and off-court traditions while weaving in his own flair. So far, it’s going pretty well — he’s one of only four HCs to make the men’s national championship game in their first year.

• After faltering last season, Carolina captured the West region’s No. 1 seed and made it to this year’s Sweet 16. This blue blood’s winning tradition is in good hands.

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Legendary UCLA men’s HC John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. The late GOAT outlined 25 behaviors of a successful person, all of which are displayed by the coaches discussed today.

The unbelievable coaching tree of late legend Tennessee women’s HC Pat Summitt. Her marks on the game lasted well beyond the day she hung up her whistle.

Our Legends of the Game newsletters diving into two more icons coaching in the women’s March Madness tourney: No. 1 South Carolina HC Dawn Staley and No. 3 UConn’s Geno Auriemma. Witnessing greatness.

SHOT:CLOCK, your one-stop shop for women's sports data and stats, where they highlight inequities with men's sports to give women the coverage they deserve. And that’s how you level the playing field.