Last Thursday, Joanne P. McCallie walked into a room where the returning Blue Devils anxiously awaited her arrival.
Duke's newly-hired head coach did not want to talk about her trademark matchup zone or the X's and O's of transition basketball.
Instead, she introduced the nine players to her husband and their two children. She told stories about her family-which includes a horse and dog.
Duke's search committee hired McCallie for her impressive coaching resume, but in the first 10 minutes with her new team, the former Michigan State head coach was more intent on getting to know her team as people, not players.
And after an extended coaching search-which was a stressful distraction for the Blue Devil players-hearing about their new coach's family and pets was a welcome respite.
"This team is looking for somebody to trust," sophomore Abby Waner said. "We're looking for somebody that we can connect with-just to feel that bond, first and foremost. She definitely has that. She has the energy. She has the passion. The basketball part of it will come."
In that first meeting with the entire team, McCallie asked the players to recite their names, majors and other interests. She learned about the Blue Devils' personalities before she even mentioned basketball 10 minutes into the conversation.
Naturally, though, the players were interested in learning the style of play their new coaching staff favors.
They asked the Duke staff to compile film of Michigan State until McCallie intervened. She told them that she was not planning on watching Duke's games from last year, and she asked the Blue Devils to avoid the temptation of watching her.
McCallie wants a fresh start at Duke, and she knows that developing new bonds with her players is a gradual process.
"It's just one day at a time," she said. "You don't try to force any relationship-you can't do that. You get to know people. You try to learn what makes them tick, learn how to effectively communicate, and then you do that. It's not an overnight thing. There was a change. Now we just have to work together."
That the players took initiative in observing McCallie once she was hired is not surprising given their active role throughout the search process. The team stayed in constant contact with Director of Athletics Joe Alleva and Senior Women's Administrator Jackie Silar.
Waner spearheaded the effort, as she relayed the team's suggestions from its meetings to the administrators. She met with California head coach Joanne Boyle, who was the first candidate to whom Duke offered the job. Abby's sister, Emily, joined her Monday to sit down with McCallie as part of the coach's interview.
"I guess I'm kind of a pain-in-the-butt with the administration," Abby Waner said. "I just like to be informed. If our team needed somebody there, then I have no problem being a little bit more outspoken. It wasn't the fact that I wanted to do it, I just wanted our team to know what was going on and get to know the people.
"It was hard because at Duke, you tend to get students and athletes that are very opinionated. We weren't just going to sit back and passively wait to see what they were going to tell us."
With the search finally over, the Blue Devils are looking forward to spending time with McCallie. They are reluctant to compare her to former head coach Gail Goestenkors, though, as they want to move forward rather than look back at the past.
For the Duke players, the past month-starting the week before Goestenkors departed for Texas-was a whirlwind, filled with rumors and daily developments. Now that Duke has nabbed its new coach, the Blue Devils are anxious to re-focus on basketball.
They know that in the end, these last few weeks have united them more than ever.
"As a team, we've stuck together," junior Wanisha Smith said. "Nobody's transferring. Our incoming freshmen are still coming. It's just one of those things that has made us stronger as a team, so we got through it, and we're going to keep moving forward."
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