Coming off a season in which her team reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament despite a roster of only eight players, Gail Goestenkors could have taken it easy this off-season. Instead, she chose to challenge herself this summer—and said she’s relishing her decision.
In late April, the 12th-year Blue Devil head coach was selected to coach the USA Women’s Basketball U19 World Championship team. The team, composed of the top rising freshmen and sophomores in the nation, is competing in the FIBA Women’s U19 World Championships in Tunis, Tunisia July 15-24.
The team got off to a good start July 15, beating Russia—one of the tournament’s top squads—98-65, in its first game of the tournament. A fast start gave the U.S. a 24-7 lead and it never looked back. After the game, Goestenkors praised her team’s defensive effort and effective post game.
Team USA began its game against Congo July 16 in similar fashion, eventually winning the contest 124-37 and breaking or tying numerous team records along the way. The team’s 124 points were the most scored by any USA squad since 1993, when they put 109 on the board against Japan.
The team then improved to 3-0 with a 94-68 win over Serbia & Montenegro Sunday.
Goestenkors’ squad has a heavy ACC flavor. Duke’s soon-to-be freshman Abby Waner—the 2005 Gatorade and McDonald’s National Player of the Year—joins North Carolina’s Erlana Larkins, Maryland’s Crystal Langhorne and Virginia’s Sharnee’ Zoll, all rising sophomores, on the roster.
The team won four consecutive exhibition games in the United States before splitting a pair of pre-tournament contests in Budapest against Hungary’s U19 team. Waner has started at guard in three of the six games, playing just over 15 minutes and scoring 5.7 points per contest.
Stanford’s Candace Wiggins, the country’s co-freshman of the year last season, captains the team along with Langhorne and Larkins.
The Chronicle’s Alex Fanaroff spoke with Goestenkors by phone just before she boarded the plane from Budapest to Tunis to ask her about her summer.
This is your fourth experience as a coach in the USA basketball program. Why is coaching against international competition so appealing to you?
Because it’s a great challenge anytime I have the opportunity to coach with USA Basketball. I learn and grow so much from the experience of coaching internationally, and I want to continue to learn and grow. I’ve learned more about myself as a person and as a coach, brought back good things to help the team be on the cutting edge and help Duke win games.
What has it been like to coach Waner? What kind of advantage does that give you?
It’s been ideal for both of us. I’m learning a lot about her; she’s learning a lot about me as a coach and as a person—the way I coach, the way I teach and what’s going to be expected of her.
Some of the players on the team are some of Duke’s fiercest rivals during the regular season. What is it like coaching players you know that you will be doing your best to beat a few months from now?
It’s been a great experience. I’ve found out more about these players while I’ve been coaching them. Erlana is one of those fierce competitors. Crystal is a wonderful person, she’s pretty special. And Sharnee is a great leader and a tough competitor. I’ve learned a lot about them; I know what they can do.
How has the team looked so far in the exhibition games?
We’ve had great days and great games and some tough days. We’re still learning and growing as a team and building chemistry. That takes time, and we need more time together.
What can you take away from the experience with this team and bring to Duke next season?
We have a really good post game on this team—I’d like to integrate that inside-outside game at Duke. There are a lot of similarities between this team and Duke’s team. We don’t have a true point guard [on the U19 team] and neither did Duke last year. We have 13 very good players on this team, and Duke will have 13 players next year that are all very good. There’s a lot I can learn, and ultimately my goal is to do whatever’s necessary for Duke to win a national championship.
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