Charleston twins headline program's Women’s NCAA Tournament debut vs Duke
The College of Charleston Cougars are in the Women's NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. Twins Taylor and Taryn Barbot lead them against Duke.
DURHAM, N. C. — Robin Harmony believed that if she could recruit players to Beaumont, Texas, she could attract talent anywhere.
After spending six seasons at Lamar University, where she won 115 games and three conference titles, that was Harmony’s pitch to College of Charleston athletic director Matt Roberts back in 2019. A Hall of Fame player at Miami, Harmony was ready to get back to the East Coast and says she “begged” Roberts for the job of leading the Cougars’ women’s basketball program, which hadn’t won anything of significance since the early 1980s when it played for the Division II AIAW championship three years in a row. “He looked at me like, ‘if you're dumb enough to ask for it, I'm dumb enough to give it to you,’” Harmony recalled on Thursday.
“We kept working and plugging and plugging. Sometimes the basketball Gods weren't very good to us… We kept on moving and moving. ” Seven years after taking over at Charleston, Harmony has the Cougars dancing in the Women’s NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.
They’re the only team in the field of 68 making their March Madness debut this year. Seeded 14th in the tournament, Charleston will face No. 13 Duke on Friday at 11:30 a.