I can't see being too hard on McCallie. Of course she does not beat UConn, but who does? (Well, OK, Muffet, but most of those losses were on the flukey side and I'm betting that it will be a long time before it happens again.)
During the time McCallie has been at Duke (this is her 7th year), she has had four recruiting classes ranked in the top three (five recruiting classes, if you count 2014) and currently has a roster of AT LEAST TEN players who were high school All-Americans (McDonald's, USA Today, WBCA).
In the six (completed) seasons, McCallie lost in the Sweet 16, then the second round, before losing in the Elite Eight the last four years.
In these six (completed) seasons, the Final Fours looked like this (national champion listed first, runner-up listed second:
2008 - Tennessee, Stanford, LSU, UConn
2009 - UConn, Louisville, Stanford, Oklahoma
2010 - UConn, Stanford, Baylor, Oklahoma
2011 - Texas A&M, Notre Dame, UConn, Stanford
2012 - Baylor, Notre Dame, UConn, Stanford
2013 - UConn, Louisville, Notre Dame, California
In each of the four Elite Eights, McCallie lost to a team that lost in the Final Four. In other words, she did not lose to the eventual national champion or even the runner-up. Three of the losses were by double digits. In two of the losses, McCallie's teams scored in the 40s.
It is not just about McCallie not beating UConn. It is also about having a team ranked in the "Top 5" for five of the seven games and losing by an average of 25 points per game. Duke is not even *competitive* with UConn.
McCallie was hired to do what Goestenkors could not do - win a national title at Duke. But this is not just about not beating UConn; it is also about Duke regressing backward from Gail Goestenkors. During 1999-2007, Goestenkors made the Elite 8 a total of seven times, with four Final Four appearances and two appearances in the national championship. Goestenkors went 2-2 against UConn and 5-4 against Tennessee (little known fact...Candace Parker's recruiting class was 0-3 against Duke during the Goestenkors era). When was the last time Duke was discussed as a serious national title contender...or even a Final Four contender?
The issue is that there is all of this high school talent that either does not improve under her coaching or improves but not enough to be a contender on a national stage. Duke has far more high school All-Americans and elite recruits Oklahoma, Louisville, Notre Dame, Baylor, and California, yet they all made it to the Final Four. Now, Baylor had Griner. And Louisville had McCoughtry in 2009. But Louisville rebuilt its entire team after McCoughtry graduated and made it back to the Final Four. Same with Oklahoma - the Paris twins graduated in 2009, but Oklahoma made the Final Four in 2010. Notre Dame lost Peters, Novosel, and another starter from the 2012 Final Four team, yet made it back to the Final Four the next year.
Her defenders will say that Duke lost to the teams with the best WCBB players each year. Except in 2010, Duke lost to Baylor when Griner was a freshman and Charles was the best player; in 2011, Duke lost to UConn and Maya Moore, but UConn then lost to Notre Dame (so UConn was beatable); in 2012, Duke lost to Stanford and the Ogwumike sisters, who lost to Baylor in the Final Four; and in 2013, when Duke lost to Notre Dame and Diggins, but ND lost to UConn in the Final Four (and, arguably, Griner and Delle Donne were the best WCBB players, though Skylar was up there).
The best comment in this thread was by DavidInNaples...with all of this talent and all of these learning experiences (as she says in her press conferences), when will there be a payoff? Not even in the form of a national title, but in the form of a Final Four berth. If she does not make the Final Four this year, I have to wonder if she will ever make one, no matter how many All-Americans she has on her roster.
He's also been saying the same post-game pablum (after every heart breaking loss) for 8 years running.
