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Bluedawg
08-23-2007, 02:19 PM
With an interesting hoops season coming Rachel Carter of the N&O details some changes that greets ACC women (http://www.newsobserver.com/734/story/679749.html)


The ACC's women's basketball teams in the Triangle enter the 2007-08 season facing a new world.
They've lost some of the league's biggest stars, Duke's Lindsey Harding and North Carolina's Ivory Latta. Six seniors left N.C. State.

Longtime Duke coach Gail Goestenkors is in Texas now, and Joanne P. McCallie takes over a team with talent and some question marks.

Duke and Carolina will have freshman point guards, and N.C. State has only two upperclassmen on its squad.

The women's hoops should be fun this year!

gadzooks
08-23-2007, 02:28 PM
After seeing the schedule last night, I am SO excited about the coming season! Duke is playing Ga Tech here, so we're going to get tickets to that for sure, and maybe try to make a trip up to Durham to see a game in Cameron, too. The WNBA season is almost over (and the Mystics didn't make the playoff, boo), so it's gonna be a long wait for more women's hoops.

Hey, a related question, anybody know when Midnight Madness is? I've been trying to figure out the date so I can make a ticker, but am having a hard time.

bird
08-23-2007, 02:34 PM
One reason to like women's hoops is the willingness of top programs to schedule tough out of conference matchups. TN is notorious for this; but Duke is right in there too, scheduling this year Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Stanford, Old Dominion, Temple. Maybe the pressure to maintain an impeccable W-L ratio is less in women's hoops than in the men's game, given that the talent drop-off in the women's game is arguably is steeper after the top 10 or so teams. But TN in particular seems willing to schedule tough games really for the "good of the game," to add interest and excitement to the women's regular season. Anyway, good for Duke, and good for TN, CN and the rest.

Bluedog
08-23-2007, 02:55 PM
Maybe the pressure to maintain an impeccable W-L ratio is less in women's hoops than in the men's game, given that the talent drop-off in the women's game is arguably is steeper after the top 10 or so teams.

This season definitely should be exciting with all those games!

Anyways, I don't think the reason women's teams schedule more top teams is b/c of less emphasis on W-L record. Rather, it is to increase exposure by being televised, convert some fans to women's basketball, bring in some money for the university and program, and to prepare for the post-season. Not many people want to watch Duke beat ECU by 60 points; it also doesn't do much to expose areas for improvement early on so that the team can improve by season's end for the tourney. Men's teams obviously don't need to do this as much since people will watch the games regardless of who they play and major blowouts (I'm talking 40+ pts) are rare. Also, it's a lot easier to predict who the top teams in women's basketball will be because they are pretty much the same 10-15 teams every year. Men's basketball is MUCH harder to predict and you may be scheduling a team you think will be solid, but turns out not to be. I don't think it happens very often where a women's team is ranked top 10 pre-season and falls out of the top 25 by season's end, but in men's hoops, that happens all the time.

In any event, to get back on topic: should be an great season to watch!

UncleBill
08-23-2007, 04:35 PM
Hey, a related question, anybody know when Midnight Madness is? I've been trying to figure out the date so I can make a ticker, but am having a hard time.
Looks like midnight on the evening of October 11th.

gadzooks
08-23-2007, 05:10 PM
Looks like midnight on the evening of October 11th.

Thanks, honey! Doesn't look like I can use the ticker in my sig here, though. Foo.

KrimsonKing
08-23-2007, 09:25 PM
Gail Goestenkors is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen in coaching regardless of sex

If Coach P is 1/4 of the hype it will be an upgrade in coaching. recruiting may be another issue. but how fun is having an ultra talented shoot itself in the foot in the big game time after time....


Alleva was 100% right in not giving G the contract she wanted because she didnt deserve it

hondoheel
08-23-2007, 11:10 PM
One reason to like women's hoops is the willingness of top programs to schedule tough out of conference matchups.

Some mens' programs do it too.

snowdenscold
08-24-2007, 12:26 AM
Gail Goestenkors is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen in coaching regardless of sex

If Coach P is 1/4 of the hype it will be an upgrade in coaching. recruiting may be another issue. but how fun is having an ultra talented shoot itself in the foot in the big game time after time....


Alleva was 100% right in not giving G the contract she wanted because she didnt deserve it

Tell us how you really feel...

Bluedawg
08-24-2007, 07:47 PM
Alleva was 100% right in not giving G the contract she wanted because she didnt deserve it

Actually she said he gave her everything she asked for.

You may be angry that she left but do not minimize the good things that she did. (http://www.newsobserver.com/1235/story/546809.html)

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2007/02/24/images/thumb_duke.jpg

mapei
08-24-2007, 10:53 PM
The guy's an obvious troll. Don't take the bait.

Kathy S
08-27-2007, 01:45 PM
I won't jump on the trash Coach G bandwagon, but I will say that if we had to lose Coach G, I'm glad we have a new coach who is completely happy and energized to be at Duke.

Bluedawg
08-28-2007, 10:52 AM
I won't jump on the trash Coach G bandwagon, but I will say that if we had to lose Coach G, I'm glad we have a new coach who is completely happy and energized to be at Duke.

I've had the pleasure of getting to meet Coach P and her family and they are truly happy to be here. Her husband asked me if i was ready for some sold out basketball games and I responded that I've been ready for that for a while. I added that I'm ready for more banners to go up on Cameron and her eyes lit up.

Duke made a good choice and got lucky when she said yes!

allenmurray
08-28-2007, 11:12 AM
I've had the pleasure of getting to meet Coach P and her family and they are truly happy to be here. Her husband asked me if i was ready for some sold out basketball games and I responded that I've been ready for that for a while. I added that I'm ready for more banners to go up on Cameron and her eyes lit up.

Duke made a good choice and got lucky when she said yes!

Average attendance at Duke women's basketball over the last few years is already higher than either UNC or NCSU - both schools with student bodies at least three times the size of Duke's and alumni bases far, far bigger. I'm looking forward to coach P, but attendance was hardly a weakness under coach G.

Coach P (or her husband) saying that Duke will have good attendance at women's Bball is like them saying they will make water wet - yes, the water will be wet, but they shouldn't take the credit.

UncleBill
08-28-2007, 01:21 PM
Coach P (or her husband) saying that Duke will have good attendance at women's Bball is like them saying they will make water wet - yes, the water will be wet, but they shouldn't take the credit.

"Good attendance" is NOT the same as "sold out", which is what Mr. P was reported to have said. That is not even close to being a regular event.

allenmurray
08-28-2007, 01:58 PM
"Good attendance" is NOT the same as "sold out", which is what Mr. P was reported to have said. That is not even close to being a regular event.

Yes, but if they achieve that goal it will be by building on what G already established. Other than the University of Maryland directly on the heels of a national championship, there is no ACC team that even comes close to the attendance Duke has for women's basketball. If you look at attendance as a percentage of university size it is a gaping difference.

I would love to see the games sold out (I've done my part as a season ticket holder for years). But if they begin selling them out they will simply be building on what G has already established. Duke averaged 2977 per game in 2000. A high of 6237 by 2004. And a very respectable 5852 in 2007. This compared to an NCAA Division I average attendance of under 1700, and an ACC average of 3300 - all done at one of the smallest universituies. Rather than taking credit for something that hasn't even happened yet, perhaps the new coach (or her husband) could be just a little gracious in acknowledging that most of the hard work in building attendance has already been done for her.

merry
08-28-2007, 03:13 PM
Actually this has been a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Having games sell out seems to be a huge talking point for McCallie. As I recall she even said in her first press conference, when commenting on Duke's great tradition and all that's already been achieved here "but what about having ten consecutive sellouts?" When asked how to increase attendance she said for example at Michigan they had a ball girl club with over 200 kids in it and if the girls come the parents have to come too, right? Then in one of her first blog entries she crowed about how season ticket sales for women had already outstripped season ticket sales for the same timeframe in previous years. Gee, maybe that's because in previous years they didn't start promoting season ticket sales in April!

I think ticket sales and/or attendance will definitely increase this year, partly because I think she'll be very visible in the community and people have a natural inclination to want to show support for a new coach. But I think we have a long way to go before we'll see 10 consecutive sellouts, for all the reasons everyone else has mentioned. Heck the Maryland game last season was the first sellout I can remember where virtually all the fans were actually Duke supporters as opposed to opponents or just showing up to see big name teams like UConn.