Her debut in a Duke uniform was dazzling. Her first ACC game was sensational.
Fanfare and early reviews signaled the birth of a new star; time proved it was a birth that will have to wait a little longer.
Expectations accompanied Krista Gingrich's arrival this season as the biggest recruit in the 23-year history of Duke women's basketball. But when the Blue Devils made their magical run through the NCAA tournament, Gingrich was little more than a footnote in a senior-dominated rotation.
Gingrich had chosen Duke over Penn State partly because of her desire to help elevate the team to national elite status. This year, the Blue Devils got there, but probably not quite the way Gingrich had drawn it up before the season. In the Blue Devils' final five games, Gingrich sat on the bench for 189 of the 200 minutes, including all 40 of Duke's monumental win against Tennessee.
"March is not the time to be selfish," Gingrich said. "I was very happy to be in the tournament and going as far as we did. [Coach Gail Goestenkors] made a decision to go with senior leadership. I was just happy to contribute what I did.
"I guess everyone has dreams of coming in as a freshman and being an immediate contributor and helping your team win. I would've liked to have done that, but I'm very satisfied. I think I had a decent freshman year and learned a lot."
But Gingrich had never settled for just being decent before. The 5-foot-7 point guard, ranked the No. 12 prospect nationally by the Blue Star Report after her senior season, had always been among the elite of the elite.
When she made her campus visit to Duke in November of '97, the Blue Devils
"I looked at the team, and I knew they had good players, a good coaching staff and the support to take it to the next level," Gingrich said. "I wanted to be there when that happened.
"I considered everything going down to attendance, and honestly, the chance to play in the national championship game. When I said that last summer, people were kind of [laughing] at me, but things worked out."
But while Gingrich's hopes to play for the national championship were indeed realized, her play in that game (five minutes, 0-of-5 from the floor) and down the stretch of the season probably fell a bit short of what she had expected.
While she wasn't always the most talented of players, Gingrich had always been the smartest and most polished player on the court. This season, Gingrich finally had to deal with not only mediocrity, but an occasional feeling of confusion on the court.
Although Gingrich's season got off to a quick start with stellar performances in Duke's early games, a nagging foot injury, turnover problems and inconsistent defense steadily forced Gingrich's playing time to dwindle as the season progressed.
"The transition is that in college, the game is a lot more physical," Gingrich said. "You have to protect the ball a lot more. People that are guarding you are a lot more physical, and they are a lot quicker. A lot of the passes you can make in high
Gingrich's struggles reached their rock bottom in a January game at Wake Forest, when she scored two points in nine minutes with four turnovers. A post-game conversation with Goestenkors, however, lifted the freshman's spirits in time for the second half of the season.
Although Gingrich never regained the playing time she had received earlier in the season, her defense and ability to run the team gradually improved under the tutelage of Duke senior guards Nicole Erickson and Hilary Howard.
"[Goestenkors] had said to all of us, there are going to be up and down times," Gingrich said. "When you have a down time, [you have] to come out of it [and] go beyond where your peak was before. I talked to her after [the Wake] game, she got me back on track."
And if the Blue Devils hope to return to next year's Final Four in Philadelphia, Gingrich's ability to stay on track the entire season will be pivotal to the team's chances. With the graduation of three senior guards, Gingrich will be counted on not only for quality minutes on the floor, but leadership as the team's starting point guard-a task Gingrich feels more than capable of handling.
"Being from Pennsylvania, you can't help but look forward and say 'I want to play in Philly,'" Gingrich said. "That's where I played my AAU ball for six or seven years, I have friends there. I get e-mails from people in my hometown every day saying they've already put their requests in for tickets and stuff like that.
"It makes you even more excited about next year."
And all signs seem to point to next year as the time when Gingrich the star may finally be born.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.