The old adage is that teams improve during the season, but players are made during the summer. With that in mind, the women's basketball team should be stocked with improved players come next November.
Some of the athletes have remained on campus this summer, while others have returned home or ventured out into the business world. Regardless of their location, the emphasis has undoubtedly been on working out.
Several of the key Blue Devil returners are recovering from off-season surgery and have focused primarily on rehabilitation. Senior forward Windsor Coggeshall went down midway through last season with a back injury and has split her time with summer school and trying to rehab the still-ailing back.
Senior guard Shaeeta Brown, who redshirted last season due to injury, has stayed in Durham to continue her rehab from knee surgery.
A healthy squad and a highly touted group of incoming sophomores should help supply head coach Gail Goestenkors with the one element the team obviously lacked last season-depth.
"One of the things that should help us is that we will have greater depth this year," Goestenkors said. "I think our depth, down the stretch, really hurt our team last year. Shaeeta was out for the whole year, but then we lost Windsor. [Sophomore guard Hillary Howard] was playing with the broken toe, and [Sophomore guard Nazrawit Medhanie] was playing with a broken finger. So it was really like we didn't have a deep bench at all.
"I think we got worn down a little bit when we needed to be playing our best basketball. You could see that when we played three games in a row at the ACC tournament. By the third game, we didn't have anything left. Then in the NCAA tournament, we played one of our best games, followed up two days later, by one of our worst games.
"I need to do a little bit better job of utilizing our bench, and I think that I will be able to because we will have more quality depth."
Sophomore center Juanita Hepburn, who redshirted last season, spent the first summer session taking classes and working out before returning to her native South Africa for the remainder of the break.
Senior forward Ty Hall has remained on campus as well, not only taking classes and honing her basketball skills, but working as an intern at Duke Hospital as well. On July 9, Hall competed with a team of ACC stars against the Italian national team in an exhibition match.
Hall is the team's leading returner in both scoring and rebounding and will be counted on heavily in the low post next year. After garnering All-ACC second team honors and setting the ACC record for field goal percentage in a season, Hall will be expected to be a team leader once again.
She has also been spending time working with former men's basketball assistant coach Pete Gaudet, who is renowned for helping players concentrate on the fundamentals.
Sophomore forward Payton Black is now back home in Westchester, Pa., but only after completing her season with the lacrosse team and attending tryouts for two major summer basketball teams. She was invited to Jones Cup trials and Select Team trials in Colorado Springs. "She didn't make the team, but I think it was a really good experience for her," Goestenkors said. "They invited maybe 36 college players total. She was one of the youngest players invited, so that was a really good experience for her."
The remainder of the Duke squad is scattered around the country, including senior guard Kira Orr who has a job with the Philadelphia 76ers organization.
The majority of the Duke players will all come together for the first time this summer during Goestenkors' basketball camps, beginning in late July. Most of the players will act as counselors at the camp and will have the opportunity to play with and against one another in counselor games.
"That will be good because it will give them an opportunity to all get back together, and they get to play together every single day," Goestenkors said.
"That is something I am looking forward to because it will give us a chance to all be together, plus get a chance to play with them again," Hall said.
In the meantime, Goestenkors has her players conditioning, working out and playing plenty of basketball. Many an afternoon one can find Hall and several of the other players playing pick-up games in Card Gymnasium, where they are generally the only females on the floor.
"I encourage them over the summer to play with guys as much as possible for the same reasons as we play against guys in some of our practices: They're bigger, they're stronger, they're faster," Goestenkors said. "I just think it makes us tougher. First of all, it is hard to find women to play with in the summer. You look outside, you look in Card- they're aren't that many women playing, so it's hard to get a game going with women.
"If they were to play with women, they would be the star, and that's not what the summer is all about. The summer is about improving-that is where we see the greatest improvement, is not during the season, but from one summer to the next."
Hall, in particular, has gained a great deal from having to battle with male players under the boards. "When Ty first got here, she didn't want to play with guys-she was intimidated," Goestenkors said. "Now she's not. It makes you more physically tough, but it also makes you more mentally tough."
"Playing with guys builds toughness," Hall said. "It's a different style of play, where you have to be more physical and play a little stronger to succeed."
One former Duke player, forward Ali Day who graduated in May, will remain on with the team as a graduate assistant coach next year, while she is pursuing her masters degree.
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