Goestenkors, Duke back in Greensboro
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Gail Goestenkors has fond memories of Greensboro – even if her current Duke players don’t.
Returning to the site of their only loss this season, the top-seeded Blue Devils (32-1) hope to repeat what they accomplished in 1999. That year, they won the Greensboro-based regional, reached their first Final Four and created what Goestenkors on Friday called “my greatest memories of coaching women’s basketball.”
They’ve got the chance to make some more, starting with today’s regional semifinal against fourth-seeded Rutgers (24-8).
But what the Blue Devil players remember most about this central North Carolina city is their last game here – a surprising 70-65 loss to surging North Carolina State three weeks ago in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, a defeat that snapped their school-record 30-game winning streak.
“It’s kind of ignited a little bit more of a sense of urgency in that it can happen, and we only have a couple more games – you lose, you’re done,” guard Abby Waner said. “The last game, we still had the NCAA tournament to look forward to. More than anything it kind of got us a little more re-energized and a little more focused.”
The freshman-laden Scarlet Knights also are motivated by a loss they can’t forget – an 85-45 rout by Duke three months ago in Piscataway, N.J., that was their worst loss during coach C. Vivian Stringer’s 11 seasons at the school.
“Duke is Duke, and they’ve been the No. 1 team in the country over the course of the year, and it speaks well of them,” Stringer said.
“They were in another stratosphere from everyone else, but we, on the other hand, were young and inexperienced and didn’t have a lot of things that I think we feel more comfortable with (now).”
Rutgers finds itself preparing for yet another road game in the tournament. The Scarlet Knights – who had to beat lower-seeded Michigan State on the Spartans’ home floor to advance to the regional semifinals – now must face a Duke team about an hour’s drive from its campus in Durham.
Rutgers won the Big East tournament, then beat East Carolina and the Spartans to extend its winning streak to five games entering its third consecutive appearance in the round of 16.
The Blue Devils – who beat Holy Cross and Temple in the first two rounds – lost to Maryland in last year’s championship game, are in the regional semifinals for the 10th straight year and are chasing their fifth Final Four.
Their first trip was most memorable for Goestenkors because Duke knocked off three-time defending champion Tennessee in the East Regional finals, a 69-63 victory that established the Blue Devils as a major player in women’s basketball.
Now, as Goestenkors’ name keeps surfacing in connection with coaching vacancies, she is trying to keep Duke’s focus on the court.
Goestenkors said that Texas hasn’t contacted her about its opening. Several newspapers in that state have called her the leading candidate to replace retired Hall of Famer Jody Conradt as the Longhorns’ coach.
“I really haven’t had to take any measures” to maintain her team’s focus, Goestenkors said. “I talked to the team early on when I first heard rumors, and I told them, ‘You’re going to hear rumors. You’re going to read things in the paper. But that’s just everybody’s attempt to try and keep us from our focus and our energy.’ “