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A Conversation With Joanne P. McCallie

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

Joanne P. McCallie is the women's basketball coach at Duke, which will face the University of South Florida tonight at the Forum, followed by Oklahoma vs. Tennessee.

With Tampa playing host to the 2008 Women's Final Four, how exciting is it to kick off the season in the city where it ends?

I think it's a tremendous opportunity and it's a subtle thing. We're really focused on our opponent. South Florida does a great job so there's that stay-in-the-moment focus. And then around that, is a sort of subtlety - look around, breathe the air, see the lights and see what's going on and get a feel for it. It does kind of make it a little more tangible in terms of what the Final Four is, where it is and how much fun it would be for any team to be back here.

This is the first Women's Final Four in the state of Florida, which isn't known as a basketball state. Coming from basketball country, what are your impressions of basketball in Florida?

There's lot of great talent here. It's a great state for that. A lot of coaches work it very hard and they're doing super jobs coaching great young women. There are great women from Florida going to all different sorts of schools and creating opportunities for themselves. It's talent rich, a lot of different kids.

Do you do a lot of recruiting in Florida?

We comb over. Yes, we've been to Florida, but our last class, nobody was from Florida. We'll go wherever there are young women academically and athletically motivated, so we hope to be back.

Can you talk about the growth of girls AAU basketball and how important that has become in recruiting?

It has. It's a great thing. It's important for women to have the opportunity to play and girls having similar opportunities. The key to me is also balance and keeping kids healthy and also recognizing the six games in a day, I'm not in favor of. But the great coaching and the great organizations, I'm very much in favor of. There's just a balance that needs to happen.

The games tonight will feature some talented players. How important is it to get those names out there to promote the sport?

I think it's very important. I think there are so many great women. I'm sad that Duke guard Abby Waner ankle sprain won't get to play because she's such a special and unique player. But of course, there are great women in Candace Parker and Courtney Paris and others and I think it's so important to showcase people and create household names. I think women's basketball is doing a great job growing in that area in having recognizable players, even by a first-name basis.

Are we finally seeing parity in women's basketball?

It's coming. Parity's coming. There are some dominance, of course, some teams that are dominant. But parity's coming and on any given night, any team can be successful and that's the beauty of the competition.

And that means any team could end up back in Tampa in April?

Sure. That's right. It could be any of us.

Katherine Smith

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