Wow. With all that Gail did for Duke women’s basketball, and knowing how deep her love for the university and program still runs, for them to needlessly humiliate and hurt her AGAIN is both shocking and infuriating. There is absolutlely no reason they couldn’t have at least given her an interview and then, if they still wanted, “gone in a different direction.”
For Duke to immediately squelch any calls for Gail to be hired makes me wonder if NOT re-hiring the beloved Goestenkors was part of the deal for the current coach to step down. This is pure speculation on my part and not based on anything I’ve heard or read. That said, I always imagined that McCallie would have had to have felt a little (or a lot) of jealousy toward Gail for the way Gail was so universally loved and admired by her players and fans. From the outside looking in, McCallie simply never seemed to capture the hearts of those associated with the program in the way that came so naturally for Goestenkors.