Gail Goestenkors

From Hoopedia

Gail Ann Goestenkors (born February 26, 1963 in Waterford, Michigan), is the women's basketball head coach for the University of Texas, having accepted the position on April 3, 2007. Goestenkors was the Duke University women's basketball head coach from 1992-2007. During her tenure at Duke, she led the Blue Devils to 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, 10 consecutive appearances in at least the Sweet Sixteen (1997-2007), and an NCAA-record seven consecutive 30-win seasons from 2000-2007.

Goestenkors attended Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, where she played under future Purdue head coach Marsha Reall. After graduating in 1985, Goestenkors became a graduate assistant coach at Iowa State. After one season, she left to become an assistant coach at Purdue under Lin Dunn, where she remained until becoming head coach at Duke in 1992.

Goestenkors accumulated an impressive record at Duke and is one of the most accomplished women's basketball coaches in the nation. She received recognition as the ACC Coach of the Year a record 7 times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007). In the 2001-02 season, Goestenkors led the Blue Devils to the first undefeated regular season in ACC women's basketball history — a feat she would repeat two other times during her tenure at Duke (2003, 2007). During her final ten seasons at Duke, Goestenkors led the Blue Devils to NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen appearances every year, seven Elite Eight appearances, four Final Four appearances, and two appearances in the NCAA Championship game. During her tenure, her teams won five ACC tournament championships and eight ACC regular season titles. Goestenkors holds the ACC record for fewest games required to achieve 300 wins (387 games).

NCAA Tournaments

Goestenkors' 2004-05 squad made the NCAA Elite Eight and posted a 31-5 record despite the loss of National Player of the Year Alana Beard to graduation.

In 2003-04 with Beard leading the way, the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, boasted a 30-4 record, won a fifth-straight ACC Tournament championship and fourth-straight ACC regular season title and broke the University of Connecticut's 76-game home winning steak with a 68-67 comeback victory in Hartford, Connecticut.

Goestenkors led the Blue Devils to an ACC-record 35-2 ledger in 2002-03 and their second straight NCAA Final Four appearance. For the second consecutive year, Duke posted a 19-0 record against ACC opponents. The 2001-02 season produced similar success. She led the Blue Devils to a 31-4 record and a NCAA Final Four appearance. Duke became the first ACC school to produce an undefeated 19-0 record in the ACC by winning the regular season and Tournament titles. The Blue Devils in 2000-01 posted a 30-4 record, won ACC Tournament and ACC regular season championships and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The 2006-2007 season ended with a 32-2 record and notched her school's first ever undefeated regular season. She is often known as the "winningest coach not to have won a championship", being runner-up two times in fifteen years.