Joanne P. McCallie: I Am Not Buying

[VAUConnFan]

The overwhelming consensus here on the Boneyard throughout the last several years has not been very complimentary of, has been highly critical of, and has not been anywhere close to being supportive of Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie; For reasons I cannot fully understand:

1. Her University of Maine teams totally dominated the America East Conference in her eight seasons at the helm; Receiving the automatic NCAA Tournament bid four times and entering as an at-large entrant two times. The America East Conference has only received at-large bids 4 times in the last 24 years. Coach McCallie's Maine teams got half of them.

2. In her fifth season at Michigan State, Coach McCallie coached the Midwest Region's #1 seeded Spartans to the national championship game losing to Baylor; This without a single first team All American. In the semifinal game, the Spartans beat a loaded Tennessee squad(all five Lady Vol starters were eventual WNBA pros).

3. Coach McCallie's Duke teams went to the Elite Eight four straight seasons, won seven regular season and tournament titles in a very competitive ACC at a school with extremely stringent academic requirements, and has only lost two times to a lower seeded team in the NCAA Tournament.

4. By what standard is Coach McCallie's success being evaluated? A national championship, a slew of Top Ten finishes, multiple regular season and conference tournament titles. She has been successful at every one of her coaching stops. True, her teams have struggled against UConn. Who has not struggled against UConn?

5. Coaching is a tough gig. Criticism, whether fair or unfair, comes with the territory. However, if the criticism is going to be harsh, then the evaluations leading to the criticism has to be fairer.

 

[alexrgct]

Simple: her success is evaluated against that of her predecessor, and Gail's record at Duke was significantly better than JPM's. jPM has been at Duke eight seasons with no Final Fours. She also inherited an already-strong program in good shape. Gail, meanwhile, built the program from scratch and was in the NC game by the end of her eight season at Duke. Duke was an elite program in 2007, and JPM has brought the Blue Devils a step back. For those reasons, she deserves some criticism.

 

[CL82]

I'm not a huge fan of her tendency to throw her kids under the bus in post game press conferences.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

4. By what standard is Coach McCallie's success being evaluated? A national championship, a slew of Top Ten finishes, multiple regular season and conference tournament titles. She has been successful at every one of her coaching stops. True, her teams have struggled against UConn. Who has not struggled against UConn?

Comparing Gail Goestenkors' last seven years at Duke with McCallie's eight years at Duke produces the following (information from pages 162-173 of the 2014-15 Media Guide and the 2014-2015 Schedule/Results)

Overall record:
Goestenkors: 220-25 (89.79 percent)
McCallie: 225-53 (80.94 percent)

ACC record:
Goestenkors: 98-8 (92.45 percent)
McCallie: 100-22 (81.97 percent)

NCAA record:
Goestenkors: 23-7 (one NCAA runner-up, three Final Fours, five years at least making the Elite eight, all seven years at least making the Sweet 16)
McCallie: 18-8 (zero Final Fours, four Elite Eights, six years at least making the Sweet 16, two second round losses

Against Opponents Ranked #1 or #2:
Goestenkors: 5-7 (41.67 percent)
McCallie: 0-18 (00.00 percent)

Against Opponents Ranked in the Top 5:
Goestenkors: 14-14 (50.00 percent)
McCallie: 7-26 (21.21 percent)

Against Opponents Ranked in the Top 10:
Goestenkors: 25-14 (64.10 percent)
McCallie: 19-32 (37.25 percent)

Against All Ranked Opponents:
Goestenkors: 60-20 (80.00 percent)
McCallie: 58-43 (57.43 percent)

Against Tennessee:
Goestenkors: 4-3 (5-4 for her career; 4-3 against Tennessee over her last seven years)
McCallie: 1-1

Against UConn:
Goestenkors: 2-1 (2-2 for her career; 2-1 against UConn over her last seven years; both wins in the State of Connecticut)
McCallie: 0-8 (and only one loss was less than 22 points, and that was by 16 points)

And against UConn in the McCallie Era, Duke has scored over 52 points in only one of those eight games while scoring in the 40s in five of the eight. Duke has allowed between 74 and 87 points in seven of the eight games. Duke has lost those eight games by an average of 29 points...notwithstanding the fact that Duke was ranked in the Top 10 for every single one of those games (and in the Top 5 for four of the eight).

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

After the Sweet 16 this year, Coach P claimed that UConn was unbeatable.

Excerpt:
After the Terrapins women’s basketball team ended Duke’s season in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, Blue Devils coach Joanne McCallie commented on the tournament field’s chances of topping Connecticut.“In women’s basketball, there is a monarchy right now, and one team really can’t be beat,” McCallie said of the Huskies. “Everybody else can beat everybody, and that’s how I feel about it.”
Terps coach Brenda Frese responded to McCallie’s comments during a news conference Sunday. Frese pointed to the Notre Dame men’s team’s two-point loss to undefeated Kentucky on Saturday night as evidence that any team can be challenged.“[McCallie] must not believe that her team can beat them,” Frese said. “Connecticut is a phenomenal team; they have showed it time and time again. But I think that you have to be able to go in with a mindset, just like Notre Dame did against Kentucky. They didn’t finish it, but they had a mindset that they believed they could win.”

Link:
http://www.diamondbackonline.com/sports/article_1e98a316-d696-11e4-9b11-2bf75f403ac2.html

I have never heard a public proclamation from a coach that her team cannot win or that the opposition is unbeatable. And for the above-referenced on-court performances and public statements, Duke spent $4.95 million (2012) and $4.8 million (2013) in women's basketball expenses.

But this was not the first time that Coach P made extremely questionable statements to the media and/or the public. Here are statements after each and every loss to Connecticut (hyperlinks):

• No. 10 Duke Falls to No. 2 UConn 83-52(2014-2015)
• No. 2 Duke Falls to No. 1 UConn 83-61 (2013-2014)
• No. 4 Duke Falls to No. 3 Connecticut 79-49(2012-2013)
• No. 3 UConn Tops No. 5 Duke 61-45 (2011-2012)
• Duke Falls to Top-Ranked UConn, 75-40, in Regional Final (2011 NCAA Tournament)
• No. 3 Duke Suffers First Loss at No. 2 Connecticut, 87-51 (2010-2011)
• No. 6 Duke Falls to No. 1 UConn, 81-48 (2009-2010)
• No. 2 UConn Knocks Off No. 9 Duke, 74-48 (2007-2008)

There are always statements about “lessons” learned and good experiences. The problem is that after eight years and eight losses (by an average of 29 points), one has to wonder what lessons were learned. The one constant through these eight years? Joanne P. McCallie as the head coach.

And what lessons were actually learned? After the game this year, McCallie said she would consider playing UConn again in the future, but the time had come to rotate the Huskies out of the schedule. "Our schedule is too hard. This team has not responded the way that I would have liked them to." Duke will no longer be playing UConn.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

If you would like, in addition to the information and statistics provided above, I could cite the countless examples of Coach McCallie’s unprofessional and inappropriate comments and behavior (toward opposing players and coaches and toward her own players). I could also discuss the incredibly high ratio of staff turnover, as well as the turnover among the players.

 

[Aluminny69]

You might want to add Gail Goestenfors record against UConn, which i believe was much better. At least, she had a couple wins, as I recall.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

You might want to add Gail Goestenfors record against UConn, which i believe was much better. At least, she had a couple wins, as I recall.

See my post above.

 

[Biff]

You might want to add Gail Goestenfors record against UConn, which i believe was much better. At least, she had a couple wins, as I recall.

Yeah but one of them was because of those damn silver unis....

 

[Alydar]

My view of JPM goes back to her first season. I saw a Duke team, led by Abby Waner, go from an exciting, dynamic and energized team to one that seemed to play in restraints. Waner herself seemed to lose her enthusiasm for the game. Of course that is just my subjective view and admittedly I am not knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts of basketball strategy. But Duke went from a team that always played an up tempo transition game to one that slowed every possession down and lived on their halfcourt offense. JPM just looks like a coach that wants to control everything happening on the court and woe unto any player who deviates from the script.

 

[rugbymate]

If you would like, in addition to the information and statistics provided above, I could cite the countless examples of Coach McCallie’s unprofessional and inappropriate comments and behavior (toward opposing players and coaches and toward her own players). I could also discuss the incredibly high ratio of staff turnover, as well as the turnover among the players.

Why stop now? You are on a massive roll!!!

 

[Huskies Rule]

You may be CRZ, but your Duke expertise is really impressive. So can you give us the skinny, the truth on why Sierra Calhoun transferred out? Thanks.

 

[VAUConnFan]

Comparing Gail Goestenkors' last seven years at Duke with McCallie's eight years at Duke produces the following (information from pages 162-173 of the 2014-15 Media Guide and the 2014-2015 Schedule/Results)

Fantastic reply, but in this context one has to wonder about Coach K's successor down the line; Coach Auriemma's. It is almost as if the best time for these great coaches to retire is with a less than average record.

 

[JoePgh]

To put it more succinctly there are two major problems with McCallie's performance at Duke:

1. Given the topnotch level of talent that she has been able to recruit, her win-loss record at Duke is significantly below what those rosters should have produced. An easy comparison is to Stanford, where Tara Vanderveer has been to numerous Final Fours with at best equal, and probably slightly less, talent on her rosters.

2. When McCallie's team loses, she assigns blame 100% to her players and never assigns any blame to herself. By contrast, more successful coaches like Geno, Muffitt, and Tara rather regularly acknowledge their own mistakes and their contributions to their teams' losses.

 

[EricLA]

Fantastic reply, but in this context one has to wonder about Coach K's successor down the line; Coach Auriemma's. It is almost as if the best time for these great coaches to retire is with a less than average record.

To be fair, though, it's not really a "successor" situation. Goestenkors did not retire - she was forced out. The Duke administration wanted a coach who could "get them over the hump" and actually win a NC. By all accounts, with the hiring of McCallie, they failed miserably...

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Why stop now? You are on a massive roll!!!

After the loss to NC State this year, McCallie threw the players under the bus and stated (in her post-game press conference), "I wish they could walk home." There was her behavior toward former UNC player Diamond DeShields after the 2013-2014 Duke-UNC game in Cameron. Then there were her other Twitter comments after losing to Notre Dame and UConn during the 2013-2014 season (statements about loyalty, comments about the foolishness of parents, etc.) I have screen shots of her Twitter comments.

In addition, let us not overlook her insistence on using opposing players’ numbers, rather than their names, to identify them. First, she recruited a number of these players, so it is a bit silly to “pretend” she does not know their names. Second, it comes across as childish, lazy, and unprofessional, especially when you are speaking of an adult coach discussing teenagers and young woman. For someone who claims to be representing Duke University, that type of post-game press conference behavior should not represent Duke University or the Duke University Athletic Department.

And her press conference behavior is now a joke for other coaches.

There are other extremely disturbing issues and trends, such as the turnover among players and assistant coaches. Goestenkors had three assistant coaches and two staff people (later three), not counting Lindy Brown, the SID (who covers multiple sports). McCallie has three assistant coaches and four staff people (sometimes five, including the special assistants), not counting Lindy Brown.

In Goestenkors' last seven, she had the following assistant coaches leave:

• LaVonda Wagner (to become head coach at Oregon State)
• Tia Jackson (to become head coach at Washington)
• Joanne Boyle (to become head coach at Richmond, later Cal, now Virginia)
• Georgia Schweitzer (to go to Duke medical school; she became an assistant only after Boyle developed a stroke, then stayed on for three years)
• Shaeeta Brown (former player; was an assistant coach for one year replacing Shonta Tabourn; then returned back to Goesntekors' staff when LaVonda Wagner was hired; later joined Goestenkors' staff at Texas)

Gale Valley was an assistant/associate head coach for Goestenkors throughout Gail's entire tenure at Duke (18 years). Boyle, Tabourn, and Gale Valley formed the staff for six straight years. Boyle was a player at Duke and an assistant for Gail for nine years before becoming a head coach.

Shannon Perry was on Goestenkors’ staff for two years; decided to stay at Duke when Gail left; but after two years of McCallie, she quit and is now an assistant at UCLA.

No one ever left Goestenkors’ staff to just be an assistant coach at another school.

In McCallie’s eight seasons, she has had the following assistant coaches leave:

• Samantha Williams (Assistant Coach, Louisville)
• Joy Cheek (Assistant Coach, Ohio State)
• Shannon Perry (Assistant Coach, UCLA)
• Trisha Stafford-Odom (Assistant Coach, UNC)
• Candice Jackson (Head Coach, College of Charleston)

Five African-American female assistant coaches have left in eight years. Only one left for a head coaching position. And one was a former McCallie player at Duke who chose to take a lateral position at a school to which she had zero ties, to get away from McCallie.

And it is not just assistant coaches – McCallie has also had "special assistants" who have left, plus other staff members who left:

• Robert Brickey
• Chris Carrawell
• Kevin Lehman
• Sarah Smoack

Lehman had even worked for McCallie at Michigan State, but left DWB marketing operations to work for Duke football.

Incredibly (and unfortunately), it is not just defections of assistant coaches and staff. Here is the list of transfers/other player defections:

• Emily Waner (left the team midseason during her senior year)
• Janee Johnson
• Brittany Mitch
• Sierra Moore
• Alexis Rogers
• Chelsea Hopkins
• Alexis Jones
• Kianna Holland
• Katie Heckman
• Chloe Wells
• Sierra Calhoun

And this list does not include Clair Watkins and Whitney Knight, two players who gave verbal commitments to Duke and Coach McCallie in high school, only to decommit and sign with other schools.

The attendance figures show the increasing dissatisfaction with an inferior product on the court and the unprofessional behavior off of it. McCallie's first season was 2007-2008. This was when Duke was established as a national power and a perennial Final Four contender, having amassed 4 Final Fours, 7 Elite Eights, 5 ACC Tournament Championships, and 10 straight finishes as the #1 or #2 team in the ACC:

• 2007-08: 6764
• 2008-09: 6665
• 2009-10: 4714
• 2010-11: 5216
• 2011-12: 5361
• 2012-13: 4958
• 2013-14: 4814
• 2014-15: 4590

Only 2,293 fans showed up for the early round games in the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Cameron. The attendance at Duke was so bad that even The New York Times took notice of how such a mighty program had fallen.

 

[BlueDevils]

Duke fans typically judge JPM off Duke vs Uconn games. Every top game outside of Uconn Duke has a legit shot to win, the games we lose, some is on coaching, some is on players, and some on injuries. I'm convinced Duke was going to come back and defeat Notre Dame before Alexis injured herself. I actually enjoy watching Notre Dame vs Duke games. But it's obvious Muffet has JPM number. When Duke has playmaking guards I don't mind her coaching style because she puts playmaking guards in positions to succeed. PS. Good luck getting any different opinions on JPM from Duke fans. 96% of "them" say the same exact thing.

 

[ctfjr]

Comparing Gail Goestenkors' last seven years at Duke with McCallie's eight years at Duke produces the following (information from pages 162-173 of the 2014-15 Media Guide and the 2014-2015 Schedule/Results)

Overall record:
Goestenkors: 220-25 (89.79 percent)
McCallie: 225-53 (80.94 percent)

ACC record:
Goestenkors: 98-8 (92.45 percent)
McCallie: 100-22 (81.97 percent)

NCAA record:
Goestenkors: 23-7 (one NCAA runner-up, three Final Fours, five years at least making the Elite eight, all seven years at least making the Sweet 16)
McCallie: 18-8 (zero Final Fours, four Elite Eights, six years at least making the Sweet 16, two second round losses

Against Opponents Ranked #1 or #2:
Goestenkors: 5-7 (41.67 percent)
McCallie: 0-18 (00.00 percent)

Against Opponents Ranked in the Top 5:
Goestenkors: 14-14 (50.00 percent)
McCallie: 7-26 (21.21 percent)

Against Opponents Ranked in the Top 10:
Goestenkors: 25-14 (64.10 percent)
McCallie: 19-32 (37.25 percent)

Against All Ranked Opponents:
Goestenkors: 60-20 (80.00 percent)
McCallie: 58-43 (57.43 percent)

Against Tennessee:
Goestenkors: 4-3 (5-4 for her career; 4-3 against Tennessee over her last seven years)
McCallie: 1-1

Against UConn:
Goestenkors: 2-1 (2-2 for her career; 2-1 against UConn over her last seven years; both wins in the State of Connecticut)
McCallie: 0-8 (and only one loss was less than 22 points, and that was by 16 points)

And against UConn in the McCallie Era, Duke has scored over 52 points in only one of those eight games while scoring in the 40s in five of the eight. Duke has allowed between 74 and 87 points in seven of the eight games. Duke has lost those eight games by an average of 29 points...notwithstanding the fact that Duke was ranked in the Top 10 for every single one of those games (and in the Top 5 for four of the eight).

Couldn't be a better example of, "You are entitled to your opinions, not your facts".

 

[Zorro]

Hey Cam; it seems that any number of people claim to know exactly what happened at the practice that caused Papa Calhoun (apparently) to insist that Sierra leave the Duke basketball program, but all of them profess themselves to be unable to share the information with the public. If you can't share what happened, can you share WHY no one seems able to? It must have been pretty spectacular!

Second question; do you think there is any chance of the Duke administration cutting their losses by cutting Callie loose? I know it would cost a bundle to do so, but it is costing a bundle in admissions and in public relations to keep her, also.

 

[CocoHusky]

CamrnCrz1974 outstanding stuff as usual. In a previous post you broke down the sheer amount of talent in the form of McDonalds All-American players coming to Duke-please repost if possible . Also, what was the situation with Betnijah Laney and Duke?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

To be clear, my wife and I have not cared for McCallie since she was at Michigan State and Rutgers played them in the NCAA tourney (there).

I can agree that she has not been as successful at Duke as GG was; OTH, GG wasn't as successful at Texas as she was at Duke. I can also agree that she is not as successful as Duke fans would wish, and I acknowledge all the issues as Cam as indicated.

But I just want to point out - and it speaks to the OP's point - there are still a huge number of schools, including P5 schools, that would happily switch places with Duke.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

CamrnCrz1974 outstanding stuff as usual. In a previous post you broke down the sheer amount of talent in the form of McDonalds All-American players coming to Duke-please repost if possible . Also, what was the situation with Betnijah Laney and Duke?

Huh? Back when we were still in NJ, we were pretty much told through the inside grapevine that Benijah would play for her God-mother. Had there not been some issue between CVS and Yolanda Laney - the nature of which I really never quite understood - it would have been unquestioned.

Or is there something else I don't know?

 

[DaddyChoc]

After the loss to NC State this year, McCallie threw the players under the bus and stated (in her post-game press conference), "I wish they could walk home." There was her behavior toward former UNC player Diamond DeShields after the 2013-2014 Duke-UNC game in Cameron. Then there were her other Twitter comments after losing to Notre Dame and UConn during the 2013-2014 season (statements about loyalty, comments about the foolishness of parents, etc.) I have screen shots of her Twitter comments.

In addition, let us not overlook her insistence on using opposing players’ numbers, rather than their names, to identify them. First, she recruited a number of these players, so it is a bit silly to “pretend” she does not know their names. Second, it comes across as childish, lazy, and unprofessional, especially when you are speaking of an adult coach discussing teenagers and young woman. For someone who claims to be representing Duke University, that type of post-game press conference behavior should not represent Duke University or the Duke University Athletic Department.

And her press conference behavior is now a joke for other coaches.

There are other extremely disturbing issues and trends, such as the turnover among players and assistant coaches. Goestenkors had three assistant coaches and two staff people (later three), not counting Lindy Brown, the SID (who covers multiple sports). McCallie has three assistant coaches and four staff people (sometimes five, including the special assistants), not counting Lindy Brown.

In Goestenkors' last seven, she had the following assistant coaches leave:

• LaVonda Wagner (to become head coach at Oregon State)
• Tia Jackson (to become head coach at Washington)
• Joanne Boyle (to become head coach at Richmond, later Cal, now Virginia)
• Georgia Schweitzer (to go to Duke medical school; she became an assistant only after Boyle developed a stroke, then stayed on for three years)
• Shaeeta Brown (former player; was an assistant coach for one year replacing Shonta Tabourn; then returned back to Goesntekors' staff when LaVonda Wagner was hired; later joined Goestenkors' staff at Texas)

Gale Valley was an assistant/associate head coach for Goestenkors throughout Gail's entire tenure at Duke (18 years). Boyle, Tabourn, and Gale Valley formed the staff for six straight years. Boyle was a player at Duke and an assistant for Gail for nine years before becoming a head coach.

Shannon Perry was on Goestenkors’ staff for two years; decided to stay at Duke when Gail left; but after two years of McCallie, she quit and is now an assistant at UCLA.

No one ever left Goestenkors’ staff to just be an assistant coach at another school.

In McCallie’s eight seasons, she has had the following assistant coaches leave:

• Samantha Williams (Assistant Coach, Louisville)
• Joy Cheek (Assistant Coach, Ohio State)
• Shannon Perry (Assistant Coach, UCLA)
• Trisha Stafford-Odom (Assistant Coach, UNC)
• Candice Jackson (Head Coach, College of Charleston)

Five African-American female assistant coaches have left in eight years. Only one left for a head coaching position. And one was a former McCallie player at Duke who chose to take a lateral position at a school to which she had zero ties, to get away from McCallie.

And it is not just assistant coaches – McCallie has also had "special assistants" who have left, plus other staff members who left:

• Robert Brickey
• Chris Carrawell
• Kevin Lehman
• Sarah Smoack

Lehman had even worked for McCallie at Michigan State, but left DWB marketing operations to work for Duke football.

Incredibly (and unfortunately), it is not just defections of assistant coaches and staff. Here is the list of transfers/other player defections:

• Emily Waner (left the team midseason during her senior year)
• Janee Johnson
• Brittany Mitch
• Sierra Moore
• Alexis Rogers
• Chelsea Hopkins
• Alexis Jones
• Kianna Holland
• Katie Heckman
• Chloe Wells
• Sierra Calhoun

And this list does not include Clair Watkins and Whitney Knight, two players who gave verbal commitments to Duke and Coach McCallie in high school, only to decommit and sign with other schools.

The attendance figures show the increasing dissatisfaction with an inferior product on the court and the unprofessional behavior off of it. McCallie's first season was 2007-2008. This was when Duke was established as a national power and a perennial Final Four contender, having amassed 4 Final Fours, 7 Elite Eights, 5 ACC Tournament Championships, and 10 straight finishes as the #1 or #2 team in the ACC:

• 2007-08: 6764
• 2008-09: 6665
• 2009-10: 4714
• 2010-11: 5216
• 2011-12: 5361
• 2012-13: 4958
• 2013-14: 4814
• 2014-15: 4590

Only 2,293 fans showed up for the early round games in the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Cameron. The attendance at Duke was so bad that even The New York Times took notice of how such a mighty program had fallen.

is there a petition to sign for her ouster?

 

[CocoHusky]

Huh? Back when we were still in NJ, we were pretty much told through the inside grapevine that Benijah would play for her God-mother. Had there not been some issue between CVS and Yolanda Laney - the nature of which I really never quite understood - it would have been unquestioned.

Or is there something else I don't know?

I 'm not privy to any inside stuff but I do know that Benijah's top three came down to Duke, UCONN, and Rutgers.
http://www.dukechronicle.com/blogs/...op-mccallie-recruits-coming-town#.VYDnJXnbLIU
The was speculation that Benijah was committed to Duke but JPM continue to recruit players at wing position in the same class and Benijah opted out and went to Rutgers.