California-Berkeley head coach Joanne Boyle, the top candidate to replace Gail Goestenkors on the sidelines of Cameron Indoor Stadium, declined Duke's offer to become its next head coach Wednesday.
Boyle, who was the clear front-runner for the Blue Devils' coaching vacancy, is a 1985 Duke graduate as well as a former player and assistant.
The current Cal coach flew to Durham Sunday and interviewed for the position Monday. She talked with the search committee and several administrators-including Director of Athletics Joe Alleva and President Richard Brodhead-before deciding that Cal was the right place for her.
"As sad as it is for me to say no to Duke, because it's my alma mater, it's not where I'm supposed to be," Boyle said. "I love living in Berkeley. I lived in Durham for a long time. I'm just at a different point in my life. I can't say it any better than that. It was a hard decision.... I knew I had to follow my heart."
Duke has been coach-less since April 3, when Goestenkors left Durham for Austin, Texas, replacing long-time Longhorns head coach Jody Conradt. Since Goestenkors' departure, Boyle had been the leading candidate to succeed her. She served as an assistant to Goestenkors at Duke from 1993 to 2002 and enjoyed a successful head coaching stint at Richmond before bolting for Berkeley in 2005. She has taken the Golden Bears to the NCAA Tournament in her first two years on the job.
"I was a good fit [at Duke] for a lot of reasons," Boyle said. "I played at Duke, I have passion for the school, I believe in them-I bleed blue.
"[Duke] is a great job. Unbelievable people work there. They are going to win a national championship-if not many. It's a place where you can do it."
When Boyle toured the Durham campus, she met with Abby Waner for lunch. The sophomore guard was the only player with which Boyle spent time. She also talked with Mike Krzyzewski, a member of the search committee, and traded text messages with current assistant coach Gale Valley.
Boyle said she had been in frequent contact with Goestenkors, her mentor, over the past two weeks. The former Duke coach told Boyle she wanted to "hand the baton" to her former assistant.
Despite the allure of the Duke position, Boyle maintained that she elected to remain at Berkeley because of an affinity for Cal more than anything else.
"I told [my] kids, the reason people have been calling me is because of our success and what we've been able to build here at Cal," Boyle said.
The race to be Duke's next head coach is now wide-open, with the previous front-runner out of contention.
"We will continue the search process," Alleva wrote in an e-mail. "We have some outstanding coaches with interest. We will not rush to a decision. Joanne felt she couldn't leave Cal after just two years."
One of the coaches that Duke could look at next is Miami head coach Katie Meier, a 1990 Duke alumna who has not denied her interest in the job. No other candidates have surfaced publicly.
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