Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie has returned to visit East Lansing, Mich. since she became Duke's head coach in April 2007, but this weekend, when she brings the top-seeded Blue Devils back to the area where she last coached, McCallie won't be stopping by her favorite restaurants or catching up with local friends.
"This is no social trip," said McCallie, who coached Michigan State for seven years. "If I want to socialize, I can go back another time. I'm pretty good at the all-business kind of thing."
The Blue Devils begin their quest for the program's first national title with their NCAA Tournament opener against No. 16 Austin Peay Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Breslin Center, the arena McCallie helped renovate when she led the Spartans. McCallie and Tom Izzo, the head coach of the Michigan State men's basketball team, designed their programs' new offices and new locker rooms in Breslin in 2001, but Sunday will mark the first time McCallie coaches another team in the facility.
Although she has visited East Lansing numerous times, she hasn't been back to Breslin-and she certainly hasn't squared off against her former team, which she could do Sunday.
But before McCallie and her team look ahead, the Blue Devils (26-5) have to get past the Lady Govs (17-15), an automatic qualifier from the Ohio Valley Conference.
That task might be more difficult given Duke's unconventional recent schedule. Duke hasn't played since the ACC Tournament final March 8, and the two-week layoff is easily the team's longest break of the season. To compensate, the Blue Devils were off from Monday to Thursday last week, and began practicing again Friday.
Those practices are different, too, McCallie said. She encourages more scrimmaging, more time-and-score situations and more up-and-down play-in short, she tries to simulate the types of game settings the Blue Devils will likely face in the NCAA Tournament.
"Because we've had so many days without games, you definitely can scrimmage more," McCallie said. "During the season, you play a game, you have a day, then you play another game, you have a day off. You can't be scrimmaging like crazy during the season, because there are simply too many games. We can go back to it now, which we have."
After strenuous practices Tuesday and Wednesday, the Blue Devils were off Thursday, fly out to Michigan Friday and have an NCAA-mandated open practice Saturday. Then, they can finally take the court against a team they're less familiar with. And that might be the best thing for the team, which McCallie thinks is beginning to play its best basketball of the season.
Despite losing its last game, Duke gained momentum from the ACC Tournament, and its burden in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be finding a way to maintain and build on that, McCallie said.
"When we play Sunday, it's about us dictating, us attacking, us creating," she said. "We certainly shouldn't be wanting carryover. We should be wanting to initiate. This is a different kind of Tournament-you create the opportunity for another game."
She may not live there anymore, but winning to force another game in Breslin would leave McCallie feeling right at home.
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