Joanne McCallie Has Had Enough | The Boneyard

Joanne McCallie Has Had Enough

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I started following Joanne Palombo when she coached the Maine Black Bears. Then a big step up to MSU and a
bigger step up to Duke. Terrific overall W-L record but her teams have been rather disappointing when it's time
for the Hot Lights and the Big Stage.

Now she has cancelled future games with UConn, and I don't blame her a bit. Duke's overblown academic reputation and self-involved sense of superiority have attracted one outstanding class of recruits after another,
they start the year highly ranked, they typically win a lot.............and then they meet UConn and are eviscerated year after year.

This can drive a stake through the heart of a team's confidence, esp. a young team. Joanne is really Super Competitive. Looking at this year's team & years of losses to UConn by an average of 29 points, I can hear her
before the season: "By Heaven, Geno's not beating me by 29 THIS time." And she was right - he didn't.

So as the sun sets slowly in the west, we say farewell to another Citadel of Elitism. You won't have Huskies to
kick you around anymore. Now it'll be Gamecocks!
 
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She said she would definitely play UConn again in the future. UConn is Duke's longest series (8 years running) and she wants to rotate UConn out and rotate someone else in, perhaps Stanford or Tennessee as they are currently rotated out. It's understandable, UConn did the same thing with UNC. There are only so many open spots in the OOC schedule and you want to make the most of them.
 
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Being a UCONN I wanted to visit Cameron Arena. Most telling women's basketball banner was the one that touted " Preseason # 1" .
 
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Players come to Duke need to ask her why she runs away for the top elite teams when she cannot beat them............JP, stock up on teams against NC NT, Mount ST Mary's, Georgia State..etc............Who did she play that was so tough? KY, give me a break..........Wait until ND gets them twice...
 

msf22b

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I wonder what Coach K is thinking about with regard how all blame is on the kids, nothing about the adults.
A black mark on the University in my view.
 
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The very best coaches would take personal responsibility in public for not even coming close to performance expectations. She should have said something to the effect...we played a great team but, unfortunately, I could of done a better job of preparing our team.
She should then take the student athletes back to Duke and make them watch the game film in private and point out every instance where a lack of effort hurt the team. She then needs the leaders on the team to stand up and discuss what they are going to do about it.
 

DobbsRover2

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Players come to Duke need to ask her why she runs away for the top elite teams when she cannot beat them..JP, stock up on teams against NC NT, Mount ST Mary's, Georgia State..etc..Who did she play that was so tough? KY, give me a break.....Wait until ND gets them twice...
That's kind of unfair since Duke is rated with the #22 schedule at this point (third toughest among top 20 teams behind only UConn and ND and 200 spots better than Texas and Texas A&M) and none of the teams you mention were on Duke's schedule except KY. So why? They played #7 Texas A&M, #12 Nebraska, #1 USCar consecutively, and then after a break for Oklahoma and UMass-Lowell they got #8 KY and #2 UConn.

Duke can probably be kicked for a bunch of things, but SOS doesn't really seem like a logical choice.
 

UcMiami

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JPM is not 'running away' from Uconn and I dislike that comment. Series come and go, and she and Uconn are discontinuing this one for the moment, as happens all the time with a number of different schools. Uconn has a series of new/resumed home and homes coming in the next two years and probably was going to have to beg off themselves since their OOC at this point is fewer games than usual with the AAC schedule being home and home.
 
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JPM is not 'running away' from Uconn and I dislike that comment. Series come and go, and she and Uconn are discontinuing this one for the moment, as happens all the time with a number of different schools. Uconn has a series of new/resumed home and homes coming in the next two years and probably was going to have to beg off themselves since their OOC at this point is fewer games than usual with the AAC schedule being home and home.
I'd tend to agree with you had she just said that she wanted to "rotate out of the series" similar what they've done in the past with a few other top ranked schools. But, once she threw her team under the bus, failed to take any of the responsibility for the loss, severely criticizing the player's effort at several points in the Presser it became clear that she's not a true leader. It indicates she's running away from the series to play teams she thinks they can beat. I like the comments above by Rugbymate about true leadership. Clearly she has some things to learn. Failing to keep playing best and running away from the series is no way to improve, especially with the players she assembling. It's not why these top players came to Duke. She failing her players.
 
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At least McCallie has the stones to schedule UConn - something missing in a lot of other top coaches.

Has Auriemma ever "thrown his player(s) under the bus" in a post game press conference?

Geno does it all the time. The post game conference is a GREAT motivator for the kids. Watch Coach P's post game interview. She is gracious and gives UConn it's due with no hesitation. Says we will beat SC and calls us the best team in the nation. Slammed her kids for no leadership on the floor. Needed to make a point. Just like Geno does. I do however think Geno is a bit more tongue in cheek than Coach P.

http://www.goduke.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&db_oem_id=4200

Hope this loads for you. Took me two tries.
 

DobbsRover2

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I'd tend to agree with you had she just said that she wanted to "rotate out of the series" similar what they've done in the past with a few other top ranked schools. But, once she threw her team under the bus, failed to take any of the responsibility for the loss, severely criticizing the player's effort at several points in the Presser it became clear that she's not a true leader. It indicates she's running away from the series to play teams she thinks they can beat. I like the comments above by Rugbymate about true leadership. Clearly she has some things to learn. Failing to keep playing best and running away from the series is no way to improve, especially with the players she assembling. It's not why these top players came to Duke. She failing her players.
But again whether or not JPM is a quality coach, why say that Duke is running away from the tough games just because UConn drops off the schedule for a while? They have one of the toughest OOC schedules now and likely UConn will be replaced by another strong team, and by the end of the year Duke will be in the top 5 in SOS. Bash the player handling, but not the scheduling. Sheesh, a lot of nice things have been said about Texas this year, but their SOS is #221.
 

Zorro

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"Now she has cancelled future games with UConn, and I don't blame her a bit. Duke's overblown academic reputation and self-involved sense of superiority have attracted one outstanding class of recruits after another,
they start the year highly ranked, they typically win a lot...and then they meet UConn and are eviscerated year after year.

This can drive a stake through the heart of a team's confidence, esp. a young team. Joanne is really Super Competitive. Looking at this year's team & years of losses to UConn by an average of 29 points, I can hear her
before the season: "By Heaven, Geno's not beating me by 29 THIS time." And she was right - he didn't."

On the other hand, not playing UConn can contribute to a false sense of adequecy.
 
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I wonder what Coach K is thinking about with regard how all blame is on the kids, nothing about the adults.
A black mark on the University in my view.
You'll be seeing much more "blame the players" when they (the players) all have their stipends and it's the coach's multi-million dollar salary at risk. Of course, maybe some players are already under contract...
 
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JPM is not 'running away' from Uconn and I dislike that comment. Series come and go, and she and Uconn are discontinuing this one for the moment, as happens all the time with a number of different schools. Uconn has a series of new/resumed home and homes coming in the next two years and probably was going to have to beg off themselves since their OOC at this point is fewer games than usual with the AAC schedule being home and home.
This is the one thing I don't like about this conference. There is no need for us to play SMU twice in two weeks. To be honest there's no need to play any of these teams a second time. I would rather just play them all once, with maybe a few of the teams played a second time in February providing those were the first teams when conference play began. I guess if nothing else the bench should get plenty of game experience, so the coaching staff should make a point of getting Saniya, Gabby, Kiah, and Courtney at least 20 minutes each. I always thought it would be interesting to see them play the first half with the starters and then the second half with the bench with the goal of having the bench team keep the margin the same or trying to extend it.
 
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"Now she has cancelled future games with UConn, and I don't blame her a bit. Duke's overblown academic reputation and self-involved sense of superiority have attracted one outstanding class of recruits after another,
they start the year highly ranked, they typically win a lot...and then they meet UConn and are eviscerated year after year.

This can drive a stake through the heart of a team's confidence, esp. a young team. Joanne is really Super Competitive. Looking at this year's team & years of losses to UConn by an average of 29 points, I can hear her
before the season: "By Heaven, Geno's not beating me by 29 THIS time." And she was right - he didn't."

On the other hand, not playing UConn can contribute to a false sense of adequecy.
 

UConnCat

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McCallie talked about rotating and over-rotating. The truth is she has grown weary of her team looking ordinary against UConn year after year. I also think she doesn't want to help UConn beef up its schedule so she can use the weak conference against UConn in recruiting.

Asked if she would resume the series at some point, McCallie said: "I think so. We were with Stanford for a while and rotated out of that series. We were with Tennessee for a while and rotated out of that series. Since I've been here, Connecticut has been our longest series by far. So without question we would.

"We're still trying to figure out who we're going to rotate in. I think we over-rotated this year. Our schedule is too hard. This team has not responded in a way I would have liked them too. So probably we won't be doing this again, the December thing."
 

Icebear

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This is the one thing I don't like about this conference. There is no need for us to play SMU twice in two weeks. To be honest there's no need to play any of these teams a second time. I would rather just play them all once, with maybe a few of the teams played a second time in February providing those were the first teams when conference play began. I guess if nothing else the bench should get plenty of game experience, so the coaching staff should make a point of getting Saniya, Gabby, Kiah, and Courtney at least 20 minutes each. I always thought it would be interesting to see them play the first half with the starters and then the second half with the bench with the goal of having the bench team keep the margin the same or trying to extend it.
Problem is that if you do not play these schools twice the options to fill out the schedule with any better quality are very limited. Most teams will not want to schedule a game with UCONN in the midst of their conference schedule.
 

pap49cba

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McCallie talked about rotating and over-rotating. The truth is she has grown weary of her team looking ordinary against UConn year after year. I also think she doesn't want to help UConn beef up its schedule so she can use the weak conference against UConn in recruiting.

Asked if she would resume the series at some point, McCallie said: "I think so. We were with Stanford for a while and rotated out of that series. We were with Tennessee for a while and rotated out of that series. Since I've been here, Connecticut has been our longest series by far. So without question we would.

"We're still trying to figure out who we're going to rotate in. I think we over-rotated this year. Our schedule is too hard. This team has not responded in a way I would have liked them too. So probably we won't be doing this again, the December thing."
I guess she's decided to under-rotate starting next year.... :rolleyes:
 
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No doubt about it. That's why the best coaches do all they can to schedule tough competition early on. "We want to find out who we are", "measure ourselves against top teams", etc. When I say I don't blame JPM, that's more sarcastic than sincere. But she did start 3 highly
regarded freshman and they were murdered. We'll find out whether this creates a sense of vulnerability or builds toughness. (JPM's postgame comments weren't too helpful.)

Duke's SOS is fine. The thing that stands out over the years is that Geno Coaches His Players Up. They are better when they leave than when they came, without exception. Duke & Stanford, both of whom get top HS players .....not so much.

(This is a reply to "Not playing UConn can contribute to a false sense of adequacy".)
 
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At least McCallie has the stones to schedule UConn - something missing in a lot of other coaches.

the pollsters do not notice if you play 1-10 Coppin State or UConn

th
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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No doubt about it. That's why the best coaches do all they can to schedule tough competition early on. "We want to find out who we are", "measure ourselves against top teams", etc. When I say I don't blame JPM, that's more sarcastic than sincere. But she did start 3 highly
regarded freshman and they were murdered. We'll find out whether this creates a sense of vulnerability or builds toughness. (JPM's postgame comments weren't too helpful.)

Duke's SOS is fine. The thing that stands out over the years is that Geno Coaches His Players Up. They are better when they leave than when they came, without exception. Duke & Stanford, both of whom get top HS players .....not so much.

(This is a reply to "Not playing UConn can contribute to a false sense of adequacy".)
I'm not sure you need to drag Stanford into it. None of these schools have quite the talent level of UConn - whether in depth or individually (i.e. national players of the year) - so when you combine superior coaching with better talent, you get what you get. Although they have stumbled this year, Stanford has had consistent post-season success; Duke not so much.
 

DobbsRover2

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I'm not sure you need to drag Stanford into it. None of these schools have quite the talent level of UConn - whether in depth or individually (i.e. national players of the year) - so when you combine superior coaching with better talent, you get what you get. Although they have stumbled this year, Stanford has had consistent post-season success; Duke not so much.
It's always hard to quantify exactly what the expectations were for recruited players and whether their accomplishments show that they have been "coached up." Most teams and fans would think pretty highly of a team that went to two NCs and 6 FFs in the last 7 years (a feat matched only by UConn and UTenn for FFs), but we all have different expectations, and there are those who believe Stanford should have beaten UConn like a drum recently.
 

RadyLady

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The very best coaches would take personal responsibility in public for not even coming close to performance expectations. She should have said something to the effect...we played a great team but, unfortunately, I could of done a better job of preparing our team.
She should then take the student athletes back to Duke and make them watch the game film in private and point out every instance where a lack of effort hurt the team. She then needs the leaders on the team to stand up and discuss what they are going to do about it.

I agree. In that press conference, McCallie threw her players under the bus, and then drove the bus over them....and laughed (JMO)

During the first half, Duke was keeping it close with UConn. Geno likes his players to figure things out on the floor. Yet he is the coach. When he sees that things aren't working out, makes some adjustments in a time out and voila - UConn run.

Great games are when great coaches play a chess match. Tip off, both teams are in it, game is played evenly (sloppily, whatever) swapping pawns and then the opposing team makes an aggressive move, sacrificing a rook to gain the upper hand on the attack. UConn coach makes an adjustment, captures the bishop and a couple of pawns. Opposing team's coach makes a counter move and suddenly the knight is gone and the queen could be too leaving the king vulnerable. UConn makes another adjustment, and suddenly the opposing team is looking at check-mate in three more moves.

I LOVE games like this!

However in this game, UConn made all the moves. The intensive pressure from the press deflated Duke. They could not handle it coming at them from all sides, and the lack of guards didn't help. The lack of a good passing game didn't help. The lack of good coaching didn't help. This is not Duke's first rodeo with UConn, AND there is lots of film to review, I believe that the onus was on McCallie to better prepare these players and better prepare herself for this game.

And as good as the Duke freshman are individually, they are still freshmen and are learning to play as a team. They have had a tough schedule thus far, some tough losses, and perhaps the OOC conference schedule was a bit too tough for such a young team. On the other hand, maybe it was what these freshmen need to see in order to understand what they have to do to get the win and ultimately the final four, but in order to do that they should feel that they have the backing of their coach. Sure, there is disappointment in a 30+ point loss, and I am making my observations based on reading the faces of the kids in the post game presser only and McCallie's comments. I do not know what goes on behind the scenes.

On another note - anyone have a link to the UConn post game presser?
 
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