Goestenkors hasn't been able to recreate the Duke days

[pap49cba]

Still, despite her program's struggles, Goestenkors' job remains safe — at least for another season.
This past week, Texas women's athletic director Chris Plonsky told the American-Statesman that the coach will return this fall for a sixth season.

"I have faith in her, and I know she's a great coach," Plonsky said.

Good article with a Uconn mention...

 

[MilfordHusky]

Still, despite her program's struggles, Goestenkors' job remains safe — at least for another season.
This past week, Texas women's athletic director Chris Plonsky told the American-Statesman that the coach will return this fall for a sixth season.

"I have faith in her, and I know she's a great coach," Plonsky said.

Good article with a Uconn mention...

Gail's winning percentage at Duke was .800; at Texas, it's .618. Not what the Longhorns had hoped for--or are paying for.

 

[ucdt3]

It all comes down to recruiting.

At Duke, she had the pick of the litter because of the school's prestigous academics as well as a great men's program, so even though her claim for leaving was "Duke doesn't care enough about WCBB" she still could get any recruit to attend the school (i.e. HS POTY Brittany Hunter) as is the case now for Joanne P. McCallie who has now had great success recruiting-wise and pretty decent (regular season NOT post-season) success on-court at Duke (much, much, MUCH more so than when she coached Michigan State).

For most TOP-tier recruits, it all comes down to the "SCHOOL" (location, campus-feel, academics, etc.) at the end of the day, IF the coach isn't a LEGEND (i.e. - Summit, Auriemma). The same recruits would likely still be attending Duke if Gail had stayed, however, hardly any (if any) have followed Gail to Texas (meaning chose Texas OVER Duke)...whereas 2012 Texas Gatorade POTY Alexis Jones is attending Duke and NOT Texas...if Gail was truely the great coach & recruiter she was at Duke (with or without the back-drop of Duke), she should have been able to get Alexis to stay in Texas and play for her and the Lognhorns.

Point being - Gail's winning % is down b/c her recruiting success is down!!!

 

[alexrgct]

It all comes down to recruiting.

At Duke, she had the pick of the litter because of the school's prestigous academics as well as a great men's program, so even though her claim for leaving was "Duke doesn't care enough about WCBB" she still could get any recruit to attend the school (i.e. HS POTY Brittany Hunter) as is the case now for Joanne P. McCallie who has now had great success recruiting-wise and pretty decent (regular season NOT post-season) success on-court at Duke (much, much, MUCH more so than when she coached Michigan State).

For most TOP-tier recruits, it all comes down to the "SCHOOL" (location, campus-feel, academics, etc.) at the end of the day, IF the coach isn't a LEGEND (i.e. - Summit, Auriemma). The same recruits would likely still be attending Duke if Gail had stayed, however, hardly any (if any) have followed Gail to Texas (meaning chose Texas OVER Duke)...whereas 2012 Texas Gatorade POTY Alexis Jones is attending Duke and NOT Texas...if Gail was truely the great coach & recruiter she was at Duke (with or without the back-drop of Duke), she should have been able to get Alexis to stay in Texas and play for her and the Lognhorns.

Point being - Gail's winning % is down b/c her recruiting success is down!!!

I agree with your last sentance. However, stating GG isn't a great coach/recruiter because she didn't get a specific recruit doesn't make a ton of sense. Everyone, even Geno, loses recruiting battles sometimes.

G took over at Duke with pretty much a blank slate. She made Duke basketball what it's become. Coach P inherited a program in very good shape. Easy to keep that momentum going. Coach G, meanwhile, had to deal with the fact that a) her predecessor stayed about 15 years too long, b) while that happened, lots of successful programs developed around Texas, and c) as much good as Jody did for Texas and WBB in general, she stuck the program with a lesbian tag in a socially conservative state. Although Jody shouldn't be blamed for the homophobia of others, that's the reality of the situation.

Coach G has one more year to turn it around at Texas. "Turn it around" means finishing in the top three of her league and making at least the Sweet 16. From a recruiting standpoint, it's fine to get the bulk of your players from Texas high schools, but the centerpiece players should come from national recruiting. There is simply too much competition, both within and outside of state borders, for top 10 national-type players in the Lone Star State. Meanwhile, Texas is infinitely more attractive a destination qua college town and academic institution than its neighbors.

 

[EricLA]

I'm with Alex in that GG started off at Duke when the program was nothing and she built it from the ground up, like Geno did at UCONN. i don't know enough about Gail's personality on the recruiting trail, but i suspect part of the problems are two-fold.

first, Gail was born and raised in Michigan. she went to high school there, played college hoops at Saginaw Valley State under Marsha Reall, then went on to be an Asst Coach at Iowa State, then an Asst at Purdue under Linn Dunn before her gig at Duke.

her roots are midwest, and i'd call Michigan blue collar. Duke, while located in NC, is an elite school and not necessarily "southeren", or even hick-ish like many other southern schools.

second, IIRC, she didn't keep any of the former assts. at Texas and pretty much started with a clean slate. without the contacts, without the drawl that Kim Mulkey and Gary Blair have, she's had trouble making inroads into the Texas high school hoops scene.

i'm not aware of how much the "lesbian" issue has been a problem for getting kids in a conservative state like Texas to come to UT, but it certainly can't help.

i'm betting someone like Cam could offer more insight, or someone more familiar with Texas hoops, but i'm guessing what she came in "selling" hasn't exactly bowled anyone over in the south. she's certainly done a good job with the plethora of kids she's gotten in the 50-100 rankings range, and she's had a smattering of top 30 kids, but you can't win without the horses and she's simply not been getting them, or the quality in-state kids to stay.

 

[easttexastrash]

I don't think that GG will be at Texas a lot longer. She got a reprieve because she brought in a top 10 recruit for next year, but if she has a similar year next year, she will be gone. I don't think she will ever recruit Texas very well. Blair and Mulkey have a stranglehold on whatever talent doesn't leave the state.

 

[triaddukefan]

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk

 

[ucdt3]

I agree with your last sentance. However, stating GG isn't a great coach/recruiter because she didn't get a specific recruit doesn't make a ton of sense. Everyone, even Geno, loses recruiting battles sometimes.

I never said she wasn't a great coach, but I did mean to say "a player like" Alexis Jones...I apologize for the error...I agree that losing out on one rcruit doesn't make a coach not great...and I only chose Alexis b/c she is a Texas player who left the state to play for Duke...I mean it isn't as if Gail is pulling in tons of Top recruits from Georgia, New York, California, Florida, Indiana, etc. to compensate for losing out on Texas stars. I mean the highest Texas recruit (according to ESPN HoopGurlz) from the state of Texas is Empress Davenport (#70). She did land 6'7 C Imani Stafford (#10) so that was a huge get and makes her the highest ranked recruit for Texas since Cokie Reed (#5 in 2009)...but alas, Reed has not turned into anything even remotely resembling a star since returning from an unfortunate injury that forced her to miss the 2010-11 season (6.2ppg, 4.4rpg in 28 games).

What I meant was that she should be getting Texas players like Alexis Jones, Kelsey Bone, Moriah Jefferson, Odyssey Simms, Brittney Griner, the Ogwumike sisters, etc. to commit to playing for a historically relevant WCBB progam aka the University of Texas, if she truely is such a great coach/recruiter/program builder!!!!!

I believe she is an above-average coach who was able to be a great recruiter at Duke due to the school's prestige (which translated into great on-court coaching success) and now this is all showing to be true at Texas (where other Big 12 schools have better coaching/recruiting (Baylor, Oklahoma, & Texas A&M - although they are now gone to SEC) and are therefore having more success).

 

[alexrgct]

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk

You really know how to hold onto a grudge don't you?

 

[alexrgct]

I never said she wasn't a great coach, but I did mean to say "a player like" Alexis Jones...I apologize for the error...I agree that losing out on one rcruit doesn't make a coach not great...and I only chose Alexis b/c she is a Texas player who left the state to play for Duke...I mean it isn't as if Gail is pulling in tons of Top recruits from Georgia, New York, California, Florida, Indiana, etc. to compensate for losing out on Texas stars. I mean the highest Texas recruit (according to ESPN HoopGurlz) from the state of Texas is Empress Davenport (#70). She did land 6'7 C Imani Stafford (#10) so that was a huge get and makes her the highest ranked recruit for Texas since Cokie Reed (#5 in 2009)...but alas, Reed has not turned into anything even remotely resembling a star since returning from an unfortunate injury that forced her to miss the 2010-11 season (6.2ppg, 4.4rpg in 28 games).

What I meant was that she should be getting Texas players like Alexis Jones, Kelsey Bone, Moriah Jefferson, Odyssey Simms, Brittney Griner, the Ogwumike sisters, etc. to commit to playing for a historically relevant WCBB progam aka the University of Texas, if she truely is such a great coach/recruiter/program builder!!!!!

I believe she is an above-average coach who was able to be a great recruiter at Duke due to the school's prestige (which translated into great on-court coaching success) and now this is all showing to be true at Texas (where other Big 12 schools have better coaching/recruiting (Baylor, Oklahoma, & Texas A&M - although they are now gone to SEC) and are therefore having more success).

From my standpoint, the error she made was to focus on Texas recruiting without much focus on national recruiting. You named a bunch of the elite Texas kids from 2008-12 (could also add Cokie Reed and Krystal Forthan, or however her name is spelled, to that list). A couple notable points about those names:

a) There is some REALLY tough competition for those kids. It's not like any one school is getting the lion's share of them. Baylor got two, Stanford got two, A&M got one circuitously, Duke got one, UConn got one, LSU got one, and Texas got Cokie. That's why Baylor and A&M will struggle to be powerhouses year in and year out, and it's why Geno wasn't content to recruit just the Northeast after winning the 1995 championship with New England girls. Diversification is key. The city of Austin, the University of Texas, and the AD's facilities, are all top notch selling points on a national level. It's not like you're trying to sell College Station to a 16 year old.

b) Coach G didn't really have much chance to recruit some of those kids. Griner committed the summer after she got to Austin, Nneka was already a done deal (which meant Chiney was going to be a heavy Stanford lean, too), Bone's recruitment was just weird, she got Cokie (who hasn't been able to stay healthy as you noted), etc. So you start behind, and then you get even more behind when your big recruit doesn't pan out into a star (thus far, anyway), and some of the other big time recruits do. The positive from Reed's injury problems is that, if she CAN stay healthy, GG has her and Stafford for two overlapping years.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

I believe she is an above-average coach who was able to be a great recruiter at Duke due to the school's prestige (which translated into great on-court coaching success) and now this is all showing to be true at Texas (where other Big 12 schools have better coaching/recruiting (Baylor, Oklahoma, & Texas A&M - although they are now gone to SEC) and are therefore having more success).

The school was prestigious before she got there. And yet the program was pretty awful in women's basketball. She built it. Duke's reputation was not helping her for several years. She built the program, then was able to use the Duke name as a deciding factor in recruiting.

As for her in-game coaching, she lost Beard, Tillis, Krapohl, Harding (suspension), and Hunter (transfer) in the offseason and had to use a freshman Wanisha Smith at the point, yet made the Elite Eight in 2005, falling by ten points to LSU with Fowles, Augustus, and Temeka Johnson.She lost Currie, Foley, and Mistie Bass off of the 2006 Final Four team and Chante Black was injured for the year, yet went undefeated in the regular season in 2007, with very little post depth. Those are the marks of a great coach.

 

[jsloanjr]

Talent makes coaches look good and she needs to find talent from NJ, NYC, Philly...etc.......Her Texas kids do not have a stomach or the shooting skills to run her system. Gail is a Dam good coach and needs more depth and better shooters.....More speed would also help.....

Gail ran into OU with the Paris sisters, and BG at Baylor......2013/2014 will be a new season and all the slates are clean and some what equal........

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I believe a weakness GG has is in game adjustments - she can rattle with consequent impact on decision making.

 

[easttexastrash]

I believe a weakness GG has is in game adjustments - she can rattle with consequent impact on decision making.

Well, it took her very little time to figure out that she should not have played BG one on one. But then again, she made the decision to try that in the first place, so not sure what that says about her overall decision making abilities.

 

[jsloanjr]

She is a tough lady that needed tougher players that can shoot better.....Lets see what 2012/2013 brings......Either way, she made a few million $$$$........

 

[zls44]

She should tell her team to just go out there and have fun.

 

[Fishy]

I think her last name is the problem - it's too complicated.

Goestenkors.

That's just ridiculous. I had to copy it from the thread title just to be able to spell it.

Say she calls a top recruit and someone takes a message - that message is going to read something like "Coach Gooseplinker called".

The kid is gonna think the coach of some backwater state school in Texas is swinging for the fences with her and toss the message in the can. That will just crush recruiting - Duke's mens team didn't take off until Coach K started to refer to himself as Coach K.

 

[triaddukefan]

You really know how to hold onto a grudge don't you?

If it were any other school but Texas.... but something about that Burnt Orange