Celeste Taylor did everything she could at Duke. The 2023 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Taylor was a big reason why Duke reached its first NCAA Tournament since 2018. From the moment she arrived in 2021, she was the player coach Kara Lawson leaned on to help establish the culture she wanted.
Among finding her voice as a leader, helping younger players with film and Xs and Os, there wasn’t much Taylor didn’t have a hand in at Duke. When the Blue Devils faced Colorado in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, her on-court impact was on full display as well. She finished with eight points, 10 rebounds, 10 steals and eight assists, but Duke lost 61-53 in overtime. She wished she shot better than 21 percent in the loss, but it was hard to watch that game and see more that Taylor could do. Still, the loss broke her.
In tears, Taylor found her biggest fans, her parents Alex and Selene Navarro, after the game. That moment took her father back to Taylor’s eighth grade year when her grassroots team lost a game and she cried during the car ride home. It was the same scenario; Taylor did everything on the floor but wanted to do more.
“I’m like, ‘Celeste, what are you crying about?’ She said, ‘We lost the game and I couldn’t score,’” Navarro said. “She was young…
