September is barely underway, and Duke’s footprint is already spread across the sports map. Women’s soccer has opened with a strong start, the Blue Devils’ pro pipeline is active, and a few familiar names are about to surface on some very big stages.
In Berlin this week, the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup gets going Friday, and Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson will be in the middle of it with Team USA. The Americans open pool play against China on Friday, then face Italy on Sunday and Czechia on Monday in a schedule that leaves almost no room to breathe, much less practice.
That challenge got a lot tougher Monday morning when Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson were removed from the roster. Plum’s exit wasn’t especially shocking after the injuries she’s dealt with all season, but Wilson’s absence lands much harder.
She’s dealing with back problems and wants them addressed before the WNBA playoffs. The U.S. turned to Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen as replacements, though neither is expected to see much action in competitive games.
Lawson addressed the roster situation on a Zoom from Berlin and said she had no role in the changes and no conversations with either Plum or Wilson. She also faced a stream of questions about Caitlin Clark, including one from a German journalist about Clark’s political beliefs. Lawson said that topic never came up in the bubble.
What Lawson did emphasize was flexibility - building lineups that can change from opponent to opponent and adjusting on the fly. That theme matters even more now with the roster taking on a younger look.
There are still Duke connections beyond Lawson in Berlin. Elizabeth Balogun will suit up for Nigeria, while Miela (Goodchild) Sowah is with Australia.
And then there’s Chelsea Gray, a name Duke fans know well even though she never played for Lawson in Durham. Gray has long remained close to the program, even flying out on her own dime to support Duke during NCAA Tournament play, and Lawson said she and the “Point Gawd” “have a great relationship.
Lawson has also praised Gray’s value to the team in the past, saying, “Chelsea brings a lot to the table for our group, just her confidence, her ability in big moments to play really well. Her intelligence is something that I think everyone leans on, how she sees the game. She’s a great leader for the group.”
That leadership looms even larger now. With Wilson and Plum out, Gray’s experience becomes even more important for a U.S. team that suddenly got younger.
The Americans do have a recent reminder of how tight the margin can be. They beat France by one point in the 2024 Olympic gold medal game in Paris.
This time, France won’t have home-country advantage, but it will have home-continent advantage and a roster with eight players who have some WNBA experience. Among them is 6-6 Dominique Malonga, who won’t have to deal with Wilson if France and the U.S. meet.
Over in golf, Alex Smalley just wrapped up the best season of his PGA Tour career, and one of the strongest by any former Blue Devil since the days of Mike Souchak and Art Wall. Smalley earned $5.8 million this year, good for 25th on tour, and finished 27th at the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta, where only 30 players qualified.
He was five under after two rounds, and while Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Rory McElroy were operating at peak level, Smalley was never really in position to win. Even so, a top-10 looked possible before he closed with back-to-back 72s on the par-70 course.
The biggest line on his résumé still remains unchanged: no PGA Tour victories yet. But he’s in the conversation for best player without a win.
He finished second in the PGA earlier this year and now owns 11 top-five finishes and 18 top-10s. At 29, with a 30th birthday coming next month, he looks like a player heading into his prime.
And then there’s Aaron Hall, who ended up as Duke’s feel-good NFL story over the weekend. The league made its cuts, and a number of former Blue Devils were released, including veterans Lucas Patrick and Joe Giles-Harris.
Giles-Harris landed on the Bengals’ practice squad, while Anderson Caste did the same with Indianapolis. More practice-squad moves are expected to trickle out.
Among Duke’s 2026 draftees, all three made it through: Wesley Williams with Jacksonville, Chandler Rivers with Baltimore and Brian Parker II with Cincinnati, though Parker will start the season on the injured list.
Hall, though, was the undrafted one who broke through. He was one of Duke’s eight undrafted free agents and the only one to make an NFL roster, sticking with the Carolina Panthers, the closest thing he has to a local team as a Durham native. A defensive tackle, Hall climbed the depth chart at Duke from role player to rotation piece to starter and earned third-team All-ACC honors last season.
Manny Diaz said he and Hall exchanged texts after the news became official.
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