DWHoops 2006-2007 Season Recap
By Rob Clough
Published November 28, 2007
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Up until March, Duke was experiencing what can
only be described as a dream season. The postseason was another story, as
the confident and smooth team of the regular season seemed distracted and
at times even disinterested. Of course, part of that distraction was the
unfortunately timed announcement of Jody Conradt's retirement from Texas.
Texas wasted little time in identifying Gail Goestenkors as their top
target. While they certainly backed up the Brinks' truck to get her, it
was really the charm offensive they put on that convinced her to leave
Duke. The early statements of lukewarm support by Joe Alleva certainly
didn't help matters in convincing her to stay, but the Duke administration
did step up in matching the offer. At that point, it was too late; one
senses that Gail perhaps had one foot out the door mentally by the time
the NCAA tournament rolled around. Whether or not that was entirely true,
what was clear was that her team played with hesitance instead of
certainty. The team was such a good one that it almost didn't matter, but
a hard-nosed Rutgers team took advantage of several key mental breakdowns
and ended Duke's season.
It's easy to dwell on the end of the
season, but to do so entirely would be to shortchange the amazing regular
season and the fantastic chemistry that this team exhibited. Despite
graduating one of the program's all-time greats in Monique Currie and a
steady post scorer in Mistie Williams, along with losing solid post
veteran Chante Black to a season-long injury, Duke overcame all obstacles.
They played and beat the nation's elite, reclaimed the ACC regular-season
title after a year's absence and sold out Cameron twice. Lindsey Harding
rose to become one of the best players in the country, winning several
national player of the year awards. While her star power proved to be
important in several spectacular performances, the reason why Duke won so
many games was that this group was greater than the sum of its parts.
While there was certainly talent, it didn't burn quite as brightly as that
on other elite teams--especially ACC foes UNC and Maryland. Duke went
undefeated in the regular season because of the likes of role players such
as Joy Cheek, Carrem Gay and Wanisha Smith--not just the top scorers in
Harding, Alison Bales and Abby Waner.
Duke came into the season with few external expectations, which allowed
the team to develop with little pressure. The team tore through 5 ranked
opponents in the month of December, and as they understood that Black
wasn't coming back any time soon, they started to coalesce. The squad
took on the personality of its leaders, Harding & Bales. They gave the
team a quiet confidence, with Harding as a sort of team mom for the
younger players. While everyone knew that Harding could take over at any
time, the way that she involved her other teammates kept everyone invested
in the offense. This made it easier for the young players to buy into the
team's defensive concepts. With Currie and Williams, the younger players
often deferred too much to them, standing around when they should have
been asking for the ball. Harding never allowed that to happen. As a
result, Duke was able to play any style that an opponent could throw at
them. With the mobile Gay at power forward and a superb finisher in
Waner, Duke was perfectly happy to run with any opponent. With great
decision-makers at guard and posts who could spot up and shoot, the Devils
were equally proficient at playing a slowdown game. Duke was even able to
deal with physical teams that tried to get them to crack by beating on
them.
Coach G wanted to quickly see what kind of team she had, and so she
scheduled 4 games in 10 days at home to start off the season.
Northeastern was an overmatched but game opponent in the opener, and the
Huskies gave Duke fits in the first half with their defense. Gay stepped
up when other veterans struggled, and frosh Cheek & Bridgette Mitchell
both opened their careers with double-doubles. Early runs in the first
and second halves gave Duke an ugly win against Marist, an extraordinarily
well-coached club that would later go on to the Sweet Sixteen. Early foul
trouble from Bales meant that the tiny Red Foxes could compete on the
boards. Duke's bench also looked sloppy and out of synch compared to the
disciplined Marist team. Gay had a double-double to lead the veterans to
an unsatisfying win. Duke then blew away a thin Houston team as Mitchell
once again scored in double digits. That led to the last game of this
set, against a Penn State team that looked greatly improved from last
season. Bales and Harding led a defense that held the Lady Lions to just
42 points, absolutely strangling their post and point guard play. Abby
Waner had her 4th straight double-digit scoring game, noticeably attacking
the basket more than she had as a frosh. This was the first game where
everyone could sense that this team was capable of some very special
things. The only person who looked more shocked than Penn State coach
Rene Portland after the game was Coach G. I think she was surprised by
how quickly this team had come together.
Still, there were some problems. Without Black, Duke's bench looked
paper-thin. The freshmen were up and down, and the other upperclassmen
were also shaky. Given Duke's rough December schedule, the Devils needed
something from its reserves. They first dispatched Michigan in the team's
first road game with relative ease, and then crushed a solid Old Dominion
club in Cameron. That latter game was marked as much by ODU's errors as
Duke's positives. In fact, Coach G was unhappy with the way her team
rebounded and lost focus. With a lead that large, it was difficult for
the young Devils to maintain the intensity that was necessary for them to
win. One of the reasons Coach G was so unhappy was that she knew a road
game with Rutgers was next.
That Rutgers team was young and unprepared for the kind of offensive and
defensive blitz Duke was about to unleash. Harding and A.Waner were
brilliant, combining for 40 of Duke's 85 points. Once again, it was
Duke's fearsome team defense that carried the day. Rutgers tried to
attack it as individuals and failed badly, but it was a lesson learned for
that squad. This game was a coming-out party for Gay, who was able to
display to a national audience just how far she had come as a
sophomore.
Duke faced their toughest test of the season to date against Vanderbilt,
who stayed within arm's reach until the final minutes of the game. The
Devils wound up holding another opponent under 50 points, though their
offense was far from efficient. Duke's guard trio suffocated Vandy's
potent perimeter game, and an odd 8-point play turned a slender lead into
a blowout. The next opponent was Texas in Cameron. While the Devils
struggled on offense with their worst shooting performance of the year,
the defense once again was so disciplined that it broke an opponent down
and forced them to play one-on-one. What it boiled down to was a matter
of trust--Duke's chemistry allowed them to fight through droughts even
when shots weren't falling, while Texas didn't respond when their offense
was frustrated. Emily Waner came off the bench to score two crucial
baskets on drives, giving Duke an enormous lift.
The team went to Cancun over break to play a little basketball. Two of
their opponents were unexpectedly tough: Bowling Green's experienced and
versatile perimeter attack had Duke down in the second half for the first
time all year, while Pitt slowed down Duke's offense. Harding and Smith
led Duke to victories in both games, proving that Duke could win ugly when
necessary. Smith was playing in a new role for the third straight season,
this time sliding over to the wing to replace Currie. In some ways, this
was her ideal position, because Duke fed the post chiefly from the wing
and it allowed Nish an opportunity to attack the basket from the baseline
more often. The Devils finished off their pre-ACC schedule by traveling
to Dartmouth for their tournament, winning two games with ease.
The Devils started off the ACC season by smothering Miami. After the
Canes hung in for about ten minutes, Duke's defense kick-started a huge
run that put the game away. A balanced scoring attack made Duke difficult
to defend, even as they weren't shooting all that well. A blowout win in
Blacksburg against Virginia Tech wasn't quite as impressive as the score
indicated, especially since Duke's defense against VT's stars was
mediocre. Three straight threes by the Waner sisters broke the game open
for Duke and their running game got them some easy scores.
Coach G was a bit on edge in Duke's next game in Cameron against Georgia
Tech. That's because her ex-husband Mark Simons was now an assistant for
the Yellow Jackets, putting them both in an awkward situation despite the
two of them remaining friends. Gail's players were unfazed and carried
out Duke's game plan with great precision. Tech plays a 3-2 matchup zone
that is vulnerable to teams that can swing the ball around quickly. Duke
drained 10 of their 16 threes, with Waner notching a career-high 27
points. Even more impressive was Duke's defense, led by Harding. She
hounded Tech guard Chioma Nnamaka into an awful shooting performance.
That game set up a showdown with #1 Maryland, the defending national
champions, in Cameron.
Duke ended the Terps' 24-game winning streak in front of a packed house.
Maryland led by a point ten minutes into the game, but Emily Waner hit a
three and came up with a key steal to boost Duke to the lead. The Devils
built an 11 point-halftime lead with no frills--they just got stops and
converted transition opportunities. Maryland chose to isolate Bales and
Harding on offense one-on-one, and that duo responded with brilliance.
Harding took the slower Terp guards off the dribble the whole game, and
wound up with 28 points. Bales nearly put up a triple-double against one
of the country's great frontcourts. Duke's bench got some key minutes,
coming up with big plays and allowing the starters to stay fresh.
Maryland was never quite the same after this game--their championship aura
was gone, and their rivals were looking to make a name against
them.
Duke may have been thinking about going to play Tennessee when they faced
NC State, trailing for much of the first half. Brittany Mitch came off
the bench to score 8 straight points, giving Duke the spark they needed.
The defense did the job in the second half, and Duke ran their ACC record
to 5-0. The game against the Lady Vols in Knoxville was hotly anticipated
by both teams, especially given the beating that Duke had laid on
Tennessee in Cameron a year earlier. Unruffled by a huge and hostile
crowd, Duke landed a 19-0 haymaker to start the game and fended off a
furious rally. Abby Waner had 21 points in the first half, nailing
ridiculous shots behind the arc. Wanisha Smith hit some clutch baskets in
the second half, while Harding was great throughout the game. It's a shame
that the two teams didn't get a chance to meet again during the
postseason, especially given that the Lady Vols wound up winning it
all.
Duke's frontcourt of Bales & Gay won the day on the road against Florida
State, in a game where the guards had trouble shooting. Back at home,
Duke struggled to beat Virginia Tech, who held a double-digit lead in the
first half. The team had to go to a full-court press to get back into the
game and played with little cohesion or passion. The game Hokies played
as well as they could, but Harding and Bales made some key plays down the
stretch, while Waner found ways to manufacture points. The bench did very
little, and it was succinctly demonstrated that Duke was going to struggle
if everyone wasn't on the same page. Still, Duke was 7-0 in the ACC and
22-0 in the ACC. Harding had become Duke's all-time leader in assists
against FSU, one of many honors she'd receive on the year.
Despite Lyndra Littles putting up 28 points against Duke, the Devils still
beat Virginia without too much trouble. A.Waner had a number of key
shots, while Harding dominated star guard Sharnee Zoll. Duke's efficiency
in the halfcourt is what won the game, especially from frosh Mitchell &
Cheek. After playing Virginia in their new stadium for the first time,
Duke returned home to mangle a scrappy young Clemson squad. All ten
players scored as the Devils broke open a close game in the first half as
Bales and Gay punished the undersized Tigers. That game set up the
showdown with arch-rival UNC in Chapel Hill.
The Heels had beaten Duke 5 straight times since forward Erlana Larkins
had arrived and they were also undefeated. In sold-out Carmichael, Duke
short-circuited the nation's top offense, holding 3 of their top players
to a combined 6-29 from the floor. That included guard Ivory Latta,
Harding's top rival in the league, who shot a mind-boggling 3-20 (and 0-11
from three). Bales took on Larkins and center LaToya Pringle
single-handedly and shut both of them down. This game was a war of
attrition on both sides, a physical donnybrook where neither team backed
down. In the end, Duke nursed a small lead for most of the game, shut
down UNC's vaunted running attack, and hit clutch shots at the end as the
Heels panicked. This win gave Duke total control of the ACC at 10-0 and
proved that UNC's physical style would not deter them from staying strong
mentally and even dishing out a little punishment themselves.
Duke went on the road and took care of hard-luck Wake Forest as the bench
stepped up for 35 of their 77 points. The starters were misfiring most of
the game, with Cheek and Mitchell leading the way. Boston College was
swamped by the amazing showing of Bridgette Mitchell, who had 20 points
and 10 rebounds. Fourteen of those points came in one amazing six-minute
stretch, including one play where she intercepted a pass meant for one of
her teammates and scored.
That left just two more regular season games: Maryland and UNC. The
Devils wrapped up the ACC regular-season title by dominating Maryland in a
sold-out Comcast Center, as Lindsey Harding was on fire in the first half.
This time playing her for the drive, Maryland let her shoot jumpers and
Lindsey was only too happy to oblige. She scorched the Terps for 20
first-half points and shackled Terp star Kristi Toliver. In a game where
Abby Waner was recovering from the flu, it was amazing to see Lindsey take
over the way she did. Carrem Gay also sizzled from the floor before she
hurt her shoulder, an injury that required offseason surgery.
The showdown with UNC was more than just a game: it was an event.
Students camped out seriously for a women's game for the first time, and
were in a full roar throughout. The chance to go undefeated, both at home
and for the season, is something that had never been accomplished before
in Duke's history. Of course, a chance to sweep their rivals was another
powerful motivator. It was the seniors who carried the team to victory,
as Bales & Larkins battled to a remarkable standstill and Harding put on a
show in the early going. As the Heels battled back in this game, Emily
Waner & Joy Cheek stepped up for injured and ailing teammates to provide
key shots and rebounds. This would stand as the biggest highlight of
Duke's season.
After a long delay, the ACC tournament began. Abby Waner was healthy once
again and she fired away from long range, notching 24 points. Carrem Gay
was healthier and helped shut down Lyndra Littles. Lindsey Harding and
Alison Bales both looked sluggish in the win. Duke then had to face an
inspired NC State team that was rallying around Kay Yow, who was coaching
while undergoing chemotherapy for late-stage cancer. NC State hit a lot
of tough shots, but they won this game because they outhustled the Devils.
Even more disappointing was Duke's second-half defense, which State shot
52% against. The Devils had several crucial breakdowns in the late going,
which was surprising given Duke's toughness all year long.
The Devils still maintained their #1 ranking, #1 seed in the NCAA
tournament, and the opportunity to play in nearby Raleigh & Greensboro.
Duke crushed a pesky Holy Cross club after a sluggish first half, as Waner
once again put on a show and Bales dominated a smaller opponent. Harding
looked out of synch, but the bench helped Duke to a blowout. The second
game in Raleigh was against a Temple squad that had eked out a win over
Nebraska. The Owls pounded Duke physically and got in Bales' head. She
was so frustrated that Coach G had to pull her. That move wound up
winning the game, as Duke's smaller lineup shut down the Owls and got
several key baskets. It was disappointing to see Temple dictate the pace
of the game and play with more urgency and precision than Duke.
That lack of passion spilled over to the game against Rutgers in the Sweet
Sixteen. The Scarlet Knights had come a long way since getting thrashed
by Duke and were eager to prove it. They did to Duke what the Devils had
done to all of their opponents: forced them to play as individuals rather
than as a team. After Duke took an early lead, Rutgers threw on a press
that had the Devils off-balance the rest of the game. Rutgers hung around
despite some early offensive trouble thanks to lots of second-chance
points, and took control late in the game due to their dribble
penetration. Just like against NC State, Duke showed that they were
vulnerable to a team that could find ways to disrupt their chemistry.
The fact that that Coach G-to-Texas rumors were in full force at the time
didn't help matters, because the calm sense of purpose that had driven the
team all year was not in evidence in Greensboro. The most heartbreaking
part of the game wound up to the be the one uplifting note in March for
Duke. After Rutgers took a 1-point lead and had the ball with seconds
left, Harding made an improbable steal of the inbounds pass and was fouled
as time was running out. She missed both free throws and collapsed on the
court--and was immediately surrounded and lifted up by her teammates, who
shielded her from the cameras and let her know how important she was to
them. That sense of unity and togetherness would be the only thing that
sustained the team through the next few weeks.
Every fan of Duke basketball knows what happened next: Gail interviewed at
Texas and then returned to Durham to think about her decision. There was
an outpouring of support from fans and the Duke community, but in the end,
Gail chose to move on. The next few weeks were tense with uncertainty,
but the players banded together and stayed close--and that included the
incoming recruits, who were kept in the loop by their future teammates.
The Waner sisters were instrumental in keeping everyone on the same page,
but both have noted that every single player had a role in holding the
program together. Finally, Duke hired Joanne P. McCallie of Michigan
State, who recognized the unique bond that had formed within the team and
vowed to respect it. Her intense but upbeat style won the players over in
the brief period she was able to spend with them. She had to leave Durham
to coach USA Basketball's Under-21 team, a squad that Abby Waner was able
to make. That team went undefeated against scrimmage partner France and
then won the Gold medal, beat top rivals Russia and Australia along the
way.
The other positive news was that Lindsey Harding wound up as the #1 pick
in the WNBA draft and quickly became a top rookie. Unfortunately, her
quest for the rookie of the year award was derailed by an early season
ending injury and the Lynx struggles continued in her absence. Alison
Bales was a top-10 pick for the Indiana Fever, but has played a more
limited role coming off the bench for a veteran club.
Back in Durham, the team held together so well that not a single player
transferred, nor did any of the incoming freshmen decide to go elsewhere.
Even class of 2008 recruit Shay Selby will honor her verbal commitment.
During a period where the program could have completely fallen apart, it's
a testament to the character of the players that they understood (to quote
Emily Waner) that Duke basketball was bigger than any one person. With a
superb freshman class coming to Durham and a dedicated group of veterans,
Duke will be poised to have yet another great season. It will take time
for McCallie to adjust to the players and vice-versa, but there is obvious
experience and skill on the part of both players and coaches.
Return to 2006-07 Season Archive
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