STrib: Whalen finally ready to return to Williams Arena

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Ignatius L Hoops

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www.startribune.com

Lindsay Whalen finally ready to set foot in Williams Arena

Lindsay Whalen said she's taken the past 10 months to decompress after feeling under "constant pressure" in her five seasons as Gophers women's basketball coach.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Lindsay Whalen and her dad were in front of the TV Tuesday night. She was rapt, engaged. She was yelling and screaming. She was rooting for the Gophers women's basketball team as they pulled away for a win at Michigan.

She was being a fan.

"I love this team, I love Minnesota through and through,'' Whalen said by phone this week. "Life is too short not to enjoy the things you love."

It's been 10 months since Whalen's tenure as the team's head coach — running the program she put on the map as a player — ended. She has not talked with athletics director Mark Coyle since that day, when her leaving was presented as her only option. She has not stepped foot back in Williams Arena.

Until now, months after accepting a settlement to leave the school rather than stay on as a special assistant to the athletics director.

The Gophers host Nebraska on Sunday. It's Alumni Day. That's an annual event. But this time much of the emphasis will be on the 20-year anniversary of the 2004 NCAA Final Four team — Whalen's team.
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It's good to have her back. She was asked to clean up a mess. She did. She has done everything for this program that has ever been asked. I can state that "I" wish she would have won more, but it would only be a millionth of how badly she wished to win. In the end, while it wasn't her personally that was leading the charge, she brought the players in that are helping the program experience its current success. I'd say she was everything we hoped for when she was hired - she left the program in a much better shape than it was when she arrived.
"Thank-You Lindsay"
 





I still think Whalen could be a very good college coach, if she wants to be. She recruited a great class and that's a big part of the battle.

Coyle did her no favors by offering her a job when she had zero coaching experience.

Coach P had 27 years of college experience before she landed at the P5 level. I think Coyle was trying to recreate the Dawn Staley career trajectory, but forgot that Staley had 8 years at Temple in the Atlantic 10 which didn't have her competing against the biggest resource schools in college sports.
 



It was sad to see how poorly this team was "coached" over the past few years. The majority of the players that transferred away from Whalen are now starters on Top 25 teams and one transfer got drafted into the WNBA. If Plitzuweit was the coach the past few years, with all that talent, she would have assembled a winning team in 6 months and gone to NCAA tournament every year. Last years players already realize the huge difference in the change.
 

Bunyan said:
It was sad to see how poorly this team was "coached" over the past few years. The majority of the players that transferred away from Whalen are now starters on Top 25 teams and one transfer got drafted into the WNBA. If Plitzuweit was the coach the past few years, with all that talent, she would have assembled a winning team in 6 months and gone to NCAA tournament every year. Last years players already realize the huge difference in the change.
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You're beating a dead horse. Give it up already.
 

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