Goestenkors accepts Texas' offer

[Dukegrlny]

http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/m...-2820332.shtml

[adam]

No "breaking news" alert from ESPN.com or ESPNEWS as of yet.

[feldspar]

This freaking sucks.

[DukeVol]

A lot of tough breaks and bad news for Duke BB this year. This does not help.

[bluey]

It sucks even more that it was announced in the Chronicle before she tells her team. I hope that is not true.

But, yes my heart sunk when I heard the news.

[Duvall]

Fire Joe Alleva. Fire him now.

[CameronBlue]

Confound!!!

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

This, coupled with the probability of Patterson following Donovan (or DUNNavin, as Packer calls him) to wherever he goes, SURELY is the last of the bad news. Could it be we've packed all our bad luck into one year? Things just gotta get better.

Good luck Gail. Hope to meet you in the Final Four next Spring.

Love, Ima

[wxyz]

It sucks even more that it was announced in the Chronicle before she tells her team. I hope that is not true.

But, yes my heart sunk when I heard the news.

The Chronicle seems to have picked up a leak. Maybe the leak is not accurate, but if it is, Coach G seems to have been doing her best to tell her team first, later today. She is a class act, and if she does go, we will still take pride in the years we were together.

[AtlBluRew]

Fire Joe Alleva. Fire him now.

I agree. Too many bad things happening under his watch.



OK .. "next coach" ... I wonder who we should go for.

[BlueDevilBaby]

I kept checking the board today, hoping beyond hope for good news. I'm so bummed. Best of luck to Coach G (just not at the expense of Duke). Although we are losing a terriffic coach who appears to be on the brink of a NC, I have no doubt that Duke WBB will be A-Ok.

[godukecom]

this is strange that duke apparently matched texas' offer...
leads me to believe that JA screwd it up for us

[Patrick Yates]

This is definitely not a positive by any definition of the word, but the world is not ending. Right now, like a bad breakup, there is a tendancy to remember the good times and forget the bad.

Frankly, Coach G wanted to be paid like Geno and Pat Summit, and that just is not fair. She hadn't earned that. I think this gives us a chance to bring in some young blood at coach, who may push us over the edge.

For all that Coach G has done for the program, and she did a lot, she was unable to get over the hump in the post season. The losses in the post season were always dissappointing. It seemed like teams peaked in Jan-Feb. Many of the NCAA or ACC tourney losses were "bad" in that the team collapsed or came out very flat. Finishing games was a problem during the season, unless we blew out a team and they subsequently quit.

Regular Season Success is good, but the post season is what it is all about. Also, before I hear about Coach K, or even Coach Wooden, taking longer to win it all, remember: G is not being fired. She is asking for a salary that would be unwarranted given her post season results, given that she is already one of the highest paid coaches in women's hoops. She took the money and ran.

Frankly, it might not be possible for a Women's team, any team, to earn enough to be profitable to justify that salary. I suspect her salary will be a loss leader at Texas as they strive to compete with OSU, UF, Stanford, and a few other large state school for overall athletic dept supremacy, a title that Duke and many other ACC programs eschew. Tenn and UConn are perhaps the only two profitable women't programs. Tenn plays in a huge arena that is constantly sold out, and is twice as large as Cameron, more so in fact. UConn fills her arena all the time (bigger than Cameron) as well as the nearby large staduim.

Duke only fills Cameron (barely) for huge, televised games. Duke can only afford K's salary thanks to the ACC's rich TV deal that the women are unlike to ever approach. The Duke girls, an undefeated and dominant team, were rarely on TV. In fact, the UNC men and Duke men combined were probably on national tv more than the women's teams at Duke, UConn, Tenn, UNC, and MD COMBINED.

The money just is not there. If G had an NC, and was a constant threat to win more (which she just is not yet given the seeming mental fragility of her teams in the NCAAs) then Duke could justify operating a money losing program. Right now, she is not worth it, and I remain somewhat skeptical that she will ever be worth it.

Good luck and best wishes to all sides.

Patrick Yates

[irondog91920110]

She said it was about people, I think I guess our people didn't measure up to Texas. As others have said maybe it is time to look at what the AD has done or not done.

[wxyz]

this is strange that duke apparently matched texas' offer...
leads me to believe that JA screwd it up for us

JA started off badly with his public comments about Duke's WBB losing money. Once you trip over yourself like that, it's hard to catch up when there is serious competition. Those same comments are going to make it harder to recruit an outstanding new coach. I really wonder if JA thought that G had it so good at Duke that she would never leave, in other words that he underestimated Texas until it was too late.

[mgtr]

Patrick Yates -
An excellent analysis, right on target in my book.

[Highlander]

Did Duke match Texas's offer? I haven't seen details of that.

[Duvall]

Did Duke match Texas's offer? I haven't seen details of that.

That's been reported, though there are no details. Probably never will be.

[FireOgilvie]

Did Duke match Texas's offer? I haven't seen details of that.

Apparently Duke did match the offer. This wasn't about money. I'm guessing this was about the perceived lack of support the program received from the athletic department and the fans.

[SoCalDukeFan]

Texas is a large state school with a huge local fan base in Austin. She can build a top team and expect to get great crowds to follow the team. Texas under Coach G could become another school with a profitbable women's bball program.

She can also expect the full support of the athletic department. It boggles my mind that her contract was not redone last year when she went to the NC game.

It will be interesting to follow Alleva's hiring process. I think he is incompetent and the hiring process will prove me correct.

SoCal