Krista Gingrich's first season at Duke could not have been going any better.
The 5-foot-7 guard enjoyed her life away from the court and smiled ear-to-ear on it, torching Florida State for 22 points in her first ACC game and, every so often, showing fans exactly why she was the biggest recruit in the history of the program.
Then one chilly January night in Winston-Salem, it all fell apart. Gingrich played nine minutes against last-place Wake Forest, missed both of her shots and turned the ball over four times. As her teammates celebrated their fifth ACC win of the season, Gingrich stood in stunned silence, frustrated with how her freshman season had gone so wrong, so quick.
The cheery exterior finally cracked; Krista Gingrich finally broke down.
"I could just see that Krista was really down and she had lost her confidence," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "So I started talking to her and a tear was coming down her eye.
"I'm just so used to seeing her so up and so positive; it was really hard to see her so low and someone with so much confidence just doubt herself."
The same highly coveted recruit who had overwhelmed Goestenkors with joy when she verbally committed to Duke just one year before now found herself being consoled by the coach after an abysmal performance that would become all too common for Gingrich's liking.
"I felt personally I didn't give everything I could have to the team," Gingrich said. "So I basically felt like I let my teammates down-that's one thing I try to give is my all every single day. Knowing that I didn't was probably what made me most upset."
Although the Blue Devils blazed through uncharted waters last season without getting much contribution from Gingrich, Duke can't afford to have her scuffling this year. With Nicole Erickson and Hilary Howard now gone, the responsibilities of directing the team fall squarely on Gingrich's shoulders. But the $64 million
The answer may lie in one fact-this is a brand-new Krista Gingrich.
It's a much different Krista Gingrich from the jovial one who posed for Sports Illustrated two years ago while sitting atop a spread of recruiting propaganda. And it's a much different Krista Gingrich from the quietly sobbing one who couldn't find her confidence just 11 months ago.
While the outward appearance remains the same-the bouncing blonde ponytail, the occasional smile and the soft jumper-this Gingrich has survived and learned much from the trial by fire administered annually to college freshmen who still think they're in high school.
In the span of a month last season, the confident Gingrich with the dead-eye jump shot turned into a confused, turnover-prone player on offense and a liability on defense-not the qualities of an ideal point guard. By the time the heart of the ACC season rolled around, Gingrich was getting her pocket picked regularly by stronger male players in practice and received even rougher treatment during games.
"She had a tough adjustment last year because she kept trying to so the same things she did in high school," Goestenkors said. "She needed to adjust and understand that it's a different game and you're not going to be able to split the defense the way you did in high school and make the same moves."
By March, the season that began with so much promise for Gingrich had, for all practical purposes, ended. She never received an opportunity to play her way back into the rotation once the postseason began as Goestenkors went exclusively with her battle-tested seniors. So Gingrich sat and cheered loudly as her teammates made their magical run.
But soon after the season's conclusion, Gingrich
Her work over the summer is paying dividends already.
"Her defense is much improved, that's just from experience," Goestenkors said. "She's doing a much better job with [turnovers]. I know she's excited about [the upcoming season] and she's looking forward to it. She has to go through some situations she hasn't had the opportunity to go through. Sometimes she'll come through with flying colors, sometimes it's going to be tough, but I know she'll grow from these mistakes.
"We'll struggle as a team and grow with her. It's not going to be all roses just because she's a sophomore."
While the season may present Gingrich with another series of growing pains, she sees it as a challenge. This is her opportunity to prove she's more than a charismatic "ray of sunshine," as Goestenkors called her last year, who helped bring recruits Sheana Mosch, Michele Matyasovsky and Alana Beard to the program. This is her chance to prove she's more than just a great team player, but that she's a great player, period.
"This is the situation that I wanted," Gingrich said. "Last year was an odd year for me because I've never had an opportunity in my career where I was basically a backup and the pressure wasn't necessarily on me. But this is more my style of game, where the pressure is on me, and I have to be the one in control, calling the plays and basically being the quarterback out there."
A completely revamped role lies in wait for a completely different Krista Gingrich. And perhaps, the new season will have her smiling ear-to-ear all the way through.
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