Originally Posted by
Class of '94
In all fairness to Kevin White, he has been in a tough position with Coach P since he came to Duke. I'm not excusing his decisions but I get it. With no insider knowledge, I would imagine that he thought the HR investigation might have forced her to resign (i.e., she would quit on her own knowing that writing was on the wall with regards to not being retained once her current contract ended); but to P's credit, she didn't quit and basically dared White to fire her. If he had fired her, Duke would've owed her a lot of money. I believe she had retained a lawyer and was threatening a law suit against Duke if she was fired. White blinked; and allowed her to continue as HC once the HR report came back with nothing to support a "show cause" reason to fire McCallie. In hindsight, he probably should've had an outside firm come in and do the investigation; but again, I'm not sure he wanted to go to that expense to try to find proof of reasons to fire her and void the remaining years of her contract.
As far as extending her contract years earlier, I thought that was a mistake; but again, I get it. She was coming off some fairly successful recruiting runs and was going to the elite 8. At that time, I'm not sure if Coach G, Alana or Lindsey would have been interested in the Duke job; and I'm not sure there was a good choice out there that was interested. With no "perceived" good alternatives out there then, White probably felt he had no other choice but to continue with McCallie. He probably thought it was the best choice financially for the program as well. I thought there were signs years ago that this relationship with Coach P was not going to work out; but as some pointed out to me in the past, there were statistical data that provided arguably strong support for keeping P.
Personally, I think he was fine with the level of success McCallie had; and I don't think he was as focused on DWB winning NCs as he was getting Duke football back to being a legitimate program and keeping the DMB at an elite level. Obviously, one could argue that if this was the case, that thought process was part of the problem of why the DWB is in the position that it is now.
I think the real person to blame is Joe Alleva. IMO, he never should've forced Coach G out. He hired McCallie and thought she would be the one to get DWB over the hump and win NCs.
As far as the possibility of Coach G, I would love to have her back here. Count me as one of the ones that point to the success of Mack Brown as proof she would be successful again. Imo, let her coach at Duke for as long as she wants to and has the program at an elite level (which I believe she would do) while mentoring any or all of Alana, Lindsey, and Joy to be a HC; and potentially takeover the program whenever G was ready to step down this time. I could see G coaching into her 70s at Duke if she really wanted to come back to Duke and be the HC. I'm not concerned about any perceptions.
I don't take joy in seeing Coach P resigned. While I was not a fan of her coaching philosophies toward defense and offense, I do think she genuinely loved being at Duke, representing the school, and being the HC of DWB. I wish her and her family well as they move forward on their new journey. With that said, I am extremely excited about the direction the DWB program can now go; and I hope Kevin White chooses wisely. If he can get this hire right, I believe he can erase any damage he cause by letting this McCallie saga continue for so long.