Goestenkors Could be the Answer
By Ryan Killian
4/5/07
All hail Gail.
Sure, the new women's basketball coach, Gail Goestenkors, hasn't done anything for Texas yet, but she turned Duke from bottom feeders to a regular in the Final Four.
There's no reason why she can't do the same for Texas.
And she knows it.
As a 29-year-old candidate for the job at Duke, she had no head-coaching experience. What she did have was a plan. She carried a list of 20 high school players she wanted to recruit over the next three years and said she could get the Blue Devils into the Final Four in five years. The university had to do its part - give the team its 15 allowable scholarships, add full-time coaching staff positions and get the players out of vans and charter busses and into airplanes for road trips, for starters - but when it did, Goestenkors landed them in the Final Four.
It took her seven years, but who's counting?
Texas already boasts some of the best facilities and recruiting programs in the nation, so despite two straight seasons without an invite to the NCAA tournament, Coach G won't have to take the Longhorns from rags to riches as she did with Duke. This will be more of a progression from upper-middle class.
And now she has experience to boot. Not only has she led the Blue Devils to four Final Fours, and within 90 seconds of another, she's also coached - and lost - in two title games. And she coached the 2005 USA-Under 19 team to a gold medal in the world championships.
Replacing Jody Conradt and her 900 wins won't be easy, but Goestenkors already has one more Final Four than Conradt in 23 less years of coaching. She's even made inroads into the Texas high school scene, recruiting All-American Lindsey Harding from Cy-Fair High School in Houston. Harding was selected No. 1 overall in Wednesday's WNBA draft.
Despite that experience and the accolades that have come with it - she was named USA Basketball Coach of the Year in 2006 and Coach of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference in six of her 14 seasons there - it's the lack of a national title that weighs on her mind. In 2003, she told USA Today that she couldn't get through a stroll on the treadmill without envisioning herself in a close title game with the seconds winding down and trying to determine the team's final shot.
Now, instead of Duke blue, it'll be a burnt-orange clad player making that shot in her dreams. And with the bevy of talent already on the roster and waiting to be recruited, that moment could come soon.
Maybe in five years, but seven would be just fine.
4/5/07
All hail Gail.
Sure, the new women's basketball coach, Gail Goestenkors, hasn't done anything for Texas yet, but she turned Duke from bottom feeders to a regular in the Final Four.
There's no reason why she can't do the same for Texas.
And she knows it.
As a 29-year-old candidate for the job at Duke, she had no head-coaching experience. What she did have was a plan. She carried a list of 20 high school players she wanted to recruit over the next three years and said she could get the Blue Devils into the Final Four in five years. The university had to do its part - give the team its 15 allowable scholarships, add full-time coaching staff positions and get the players out of vans and charter busses and into airplanes for road trips, for starters - but when it did, Goestenkors landed them in the Final Four.
It took her seven years, but who's counting?
Texas already boasts some of the best facilities and recruiting programs in the nation, so despite two straight seasons without an invite to the NCAA tournament, Coach G won't have to take the Longhorns from rags to riches as she did with Duke. This will be more of a progression from upper-middle class.
And now she has experience to boot. Not only has she led the Blue Devils to four Final Fours, and within 90 seconds of another, she's also coached - and lost - in two title games. And she coached the 2005 USA-Under 19 team to a gold medal in the world championships.
Replacing Jody Conradt and her 900 wins won't be easy, but Goestenkors already has one more Final Four than Conradt in 23 less years of coaching. She's even made inroads into the Texas high school scene, recruiting All-American Lindsey Harding from Cy-Fair High School in Houston. Harding was selected No. 1 overall in Wednesday's WNBA draft.
Despite that experience and the accolades that have come with it - she was named USA Basketball Coach of the Year in 2006 and Coach of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference in six of her 14 seasons there - it's the lack of a national title that weighs on her mind. In 2003, she told USA Today that she couldn't get through a stroll on the treadmill without envisioning herself in a close title game with the seconds winding down and trying to determine the team's final shot.
Now, instead of Duke blue, it'll be a burnt-orange clad player making that shot in her dreams. And with the bevy of talent already on the roster and waiting to be recruited, that moment could come soon.
Maybe in five years, but seven would be just fine.
posted by BurntOrnge at 2:03 AM
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