Sparty coach to Duke?

MSU's McCallie going to Duke

April 18, 2007

By MICK McCABE

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Joanne P. McCallie will leave Michigan State and become the women’s basketball coach at Duke, sources close to the MSU women’s program told the Free Press on Wednesday.

She replaces national coach of the year and Waterford native Gail Goestenkors, who left Duke to become the coach at Texas. Terms of McCallie’s contract with Duke were not known.

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In seven years at MSU, McCallie compiled a 145-75 record and guided the Spartans to five consecutive NCAA appearances, including the 2005 national championship game, which the Spartans lost to Baylor.

As the NCAA tournament began last month, speculation swirled that McCallie was interested in coaching vacancies at Florida and LSU. When MSU was eliminated from the tournament following a second-round loss to eventual runner-up Rutgers, McCallie refused to comment on those rumors.

On March 24, McCallie signed a revised, five-year rollover contract to remain at MSU, guaranteeing her $500,000 a year. With incentives, she could have made $643,000.

She recently hired Samantha Williams as an MSU assistant.

MSU officials now must replace the most successful coach in program history.
They likely will look at Marquette coach Terri Mitchell, who also was a finalist at Duke; former MSU coach Felisha Legette-Jack, who completed her first season at Indiana; Eastern Michigan coach Suzy Merchant, and Bowling Green coach Kurt Miller.

At Duke, McCallie will inherit a roster that has all but two starters back from a 32-2 team that was ranked No. 1 in the country for most of the season.

 

Hmm.........wonder if C. Vivian Stringer..........oh hell with it..........never mind.

 

I saw the thread title and thought Izzo had signed on as Kzyzewxyzptlk's assistant coach.

Back on topic, it's now confirmed by multiple sources. No-brainer for McCallie.

 

I hope Suzy gets the MSU job. I know Borseth is great, but I think Michigan is going to regret not hiring Suzy - especially when she goes to East Lansing and continues Sparty's dominance of Michigan.

 

She'd be a good choice for Sparty. Took a moribund program at Eastern to two postseason tournaments (or is it three, one NCAA and two NIT?). She's done well at each level as she's moved up.

Of course that would probably send the EMU women's program into a Milton Barnes/Jim Boone type of spiral.

 

Heard Cheryl Getz is available

 

I guess that's the Duke template now: You have to have a Michigan connection. Goestenkors originally is from Saginaw.

 

This is an excellent hire for Duke, particularly given the late date and the number of high profile jobs that needed to be filled.

I think McCallie will bring a little bit of mental toughness to a team that is loaded with talent but always seems to melt down at critical times.

I'd like to see the guy from Bowling Green get this job because I think he is an excellent, excellent coach who, because of his lifestyle, has been passed over for jobs that went to coaches who don't have his credentials. And that's a shame because I think he can coach and would clean up in the Big Ten, especially considering the lack of quality coaches that league seems to have right now.

 

What do you mean by his lifestyle? And how many different lifestyles can you have in Fort Collins and Bowling Green?

 

He's openly gay, which let's not turn this into semantics argument about gays being born that way or whatever.

That wasn't my intention, I just meant he is gay and if i am not mistaken has a live-in partner and they adopted a kid and it is accepted and embraced by many in the community but it has held him back in getting other jobs.

 

And this makes him different from multiple other women's college basketball coaches how?

Other than the fact that he's a guy, which may hurt him more than his sexual preferences in the pursuit of a big-time college job (which, in women's basketball circles, aren't often available to men unless they've been around since the six-player days (OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but at least the AIAW days ) -- like Auriemma, Landers, Foster, Chancellor, et al).

Interesting that Felicia Legette-Jack is listed as a candidate ... if that goes down, Indiana might get a bit tired of being the farm team for the rest of the conference's coaching staffs after losing Sharon Versyp to Purdue last year.

 

Agreed, which is something that Duke needs. Duke is not necessarily the most underachieving women's college basketball team but Duke is certainly one of the few teams that "can't win the big one" despite so much talent. Joanne P. McCallie is a proven winner and it will be interesting to see how she can further shape up one of the traditional powers in the game. (However, the good folks of Durham need to keep one eye on her husband.)