Q and A with Coach G

Women's basketball coach Gail Goestenkors arrived at Duke in 1992. She took over a struggling program, but by last year had the Blue Devils in the national championship game. Duke's tournament run, including a stunning upset over Tennessee, made stars of both Goestenkors and the Blue Devils. In an interview with The Chronicle, she discussed the past and the future of the Blue Devil program. Interview conducted by Neal Morgan.

c Obviously the program has come a long way in the seven year's you have been here. Can you describe the process that has brought a once struggling program to an elite level?

I think to a lot of people it seems like it happened very quickly. Seven years isn't a long period of time, but for us, it seems like it's taken forever because we wanted to see success very early on. I think probably the best thing to help it happen so quickly are my assistants Gale Valley, Joanne Boyle and Shonta Tabourn. We've had great assistants who do a tremendous job.

The administration, when I came in, really made a commitment to women's basketball, and I think that was huge. Not just the financial commitment, but the emotional commitment, letting us know they wanted to help us in every way possible to become one of the elite programs in the country.

Then it's just been bringing in great players who are also outstanding people and willing to work harder. Because we had to make up so much ground, the players that we brought in had to be willing to do the little things and go the extra mile in order for us to get to the top.

I give a lot of credit to the people that are surrounding this program, whether it be the assistants, the administration, the players that have come in and been very, very dedicated and have had the same goals and dreams that we've had.

c Since the Tennessee game, you personally have received a lot more media attention and have become a more prominent figure in your sport. How has your life changed since last year's championship game run?

It's just become much more hectic. Many more speaking requests, I think that's the biggest change. Just more people want me to come out and speak, whether it be at their high school graduations or banquets or clinics. It just seems like everybody wants a little piece of my time so that I don't have quite as much free time.

c As far as recruiting goes, do you think you are reaching the status of a Tennessee or a Connecticut, or is there still a gap there?

I still think there's a gap because they've won the national championship and they've been consistently in the top four or five. We've been there really two years now, so we're beginning to establish a reputation, but it takes a couple of years.

And I think the other thing is that both of those programs have great attendance and that's a huge problem for us. All athletes ask what our attendance is and when ours is below 3,000 and Tennessee's is around 19,000 a night, it makes a difference. That's probably the one area where I feel like we struggle more than any other area is with our attendance.

c Obviously attendance went up toward the end of last year, but next year you won't start the season with such a high ranking. Do you think attendance will go up again, or do you think it could actually decline?

I don't know. I hope it goes up. Every year our attendance has increased, but we're not going to be ranked where we were preseason. We're going to have to fight for everything we get. We're going to need attendance more than ever to help us through, and I hope that we'll have that support.

c Have you been able to sense a change of attitude toward the program on the Duke campus?

I definitely sense it. Last year, for the first time I felt like we had a core of very loyal fans. Cameron Crazie fans, not just the families with young children that tend to be our core group for all of women's basketball. For the first time, I felt like there were some Cameron Crazies that really jumped on our bandwagon and supported us both at home and away. That's the first time we've had students travel with us to our away games and really support us so I think we're starting to gain more of a fan base among the students, and I think that's so important for us.

c In the greater scheme of things and the development of this program, how important were the transfers of Michele VanGorp and Nicole Erickson to this program?

It was a huge impact on our program. It gave us two outstanding players, but also very determined individuals. I think it put us a couple of years ahead of where we would have been.

c How do you go about replacing all that the six seniors brought to last year's team?

They each brought something different, which I think made it so special. But we had our post season meeting last year and I said, 'Okay, those people are gone. They each brought something special to the table, now every single player we have returning has to expand their role.'

That's something that's very exciting when you know you can expand your role, because everyone wants that. But it's also something that can be a bit intimidating.

For instance, Lauren Rice is a senior and I expect her to be a tremendous leader for us. She's always come off the bench and been very comfortable in that role, but she might start this year. That's a different feel. There's more pressure at times to start and produce than to come off the bench and know if I play well, that's great, but if I don't, that's okay too.

So we've talked about that, and I think we have several players who are going to step into leadership roles. I think Missy West, whose been a great leader for us on the sideline for several years, she's starting to feel much more comfortable, so I think she's going to show great leadership. Jennifer Forte, whose been struggling with a knee injury, can also show great leadership. Our senior class can once again give us leadership in different forms. Some will be on the floor, some will come off the bench, some may be injured. But I think it's a group that has now had a taste of something very special and they want it back.

c What are your goals for this year's team? How far do you think they can go?

Actually, I haven't set goals for the team since my second year here, when I realized it doesn't matter if I set goals for them. They have to set their own goals. In our post-season meeting, I talked with all the returners about what they want to accomplish from this year. The first thing they said is that they want to win the ACC tournament, because that's something we still haven't been able to do. So they want to do something special and I know that's their No. 1 goal. Then the next goal is that they said they wanted to win the national championship. Once we start our practices and bring the freshmen in, then we'll reevaluate our goals, make sure we're all still on the same page, because our freshmen are going to be just as important for when we try to obtain those goals.

c Next year's team will be a lot smaller, but on the other hand a lot quicker, than last year's team. How do you plan on changing your offense and defense to adjust for these changes in personnel?

We'll probably be running a five-out motion. We're not going to have a true center, but almost all of our players can shoot the three-some with more consistency than others-but we're really going to be able to spread out the defense. So we're going to run a five-out offense, we'll be posting up our guards probably as much as we post up our post. That will really spread the floor out, allow us to penetrate a little bit.

Then defensively, we'll be doing more pressing, much more trapping in the quarter courts trying to create more steals. We know it will be difficult for us when we go up against someone like Summer Erb [of N.C. State], who's just going to have the height advantage on us. We're going to have to press a little bit more, run a little bit more and get her into more of a running game.

I think they'll be good with it. We've been moving toward the five-out motion for several years. Last year we ran some 4-out motion with just Michele [VanGorp] inside. So basically it's just the same thing we did last year, but we're just bringing that fifth person out.

c What are your thoughts on this year's freshman class? They have obviously had successful high school careers, but what type of impact can they have as freshmen?

I think they'll make an impact as a class. What I mean by that, is that I think we have five really good players. I don't know that any one player is going to come in and start or be a star; they may, but I couldn't tell you who it's going to be until they get here.

But as a class, they're going to have an impact on this program. They are all hard workers, they understand the game of basketball and they're going to bring an excitem