Gail Goestenkors

Gail Ann Goestenkors (born February 26, 1963) is an American basketball coach who is currently an assistant coach for the Kentucky Wildcats women's basketball team.

She is perhaps best known as the women's college basketball head coach of Duke University and The University of Texas.

After graduating in 1985, Goestenkors became a graduate assistant coach at Iowa State.

She led Duke from 1992 until 2007, when she was hired to replace the retiring Jody Conradt at Texas.

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.

At Duke, Goestenkors received recognition as the ACC Coach of the Year a record 7 times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007).

Goestenkors served as the head coach of the USA representative to the 1997 William Jones Cup competition The event was held in Taipei, Taiwan during August 1997.

The USA team won their first six games.

Four of the six were decided by six points or fewer, including the semifinal game against Japan which went to overtime.

In the gold medal game, the USA faced undefeated South Korea.

The Americans played to a six-point lead early in the second half, but could not extend the margin.

South Korea came back, took the lead, and held on to win the championship and the gold medal 76–71.

Goestenkors' 1998-99 Duke team finished in second place, losing to the Carolyn Peck-coached Purdue Lady Boilermakers in the championship game.

Along the way, Duke defeated the Tennessee Lady Vols in the Elite Eight, spoiling Chamique Holdsclaw's bid for a clean sweep of the national championship (Holdsclaw had starred on Tennessee's national championship teams as a freshman, sophomore and junior).

That included the opening round game against Russia, who has played them close in the 1998 Championship final.

In the opening game, the USA won 89–55 behind 20 points form Lisa Leslie and 17 from Sheryl Swoopes.

The USA wasn't seriously challenged in the quarterfinals, where they beat Spain by 39 points.

The semifinal game against Australia was closer, but Leslie had a double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds to help the USA team win by 15 points.

Duke's historic upset ended the Lady Vols' three-year run of national championships with a 69–63 victory over Tennessee in the final of the 1999 East Regionaland that sent shock waves through the sport.

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.

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 repeated two more 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).

The 2001–02 season produced similar success.

She led the Blue Devils to a 31–4 record and an 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.

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.

Goestenkors served as an assistant coach to the national team in the 2002 World Championships, held during September in three cities in China, including Nanjing, China.

The USA won the opening six preliminary rounds easily, with no contest closer than 30 points.

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 69-game home winning steak with a 68-67 comeback victory in Hartford, Connecticut.

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.

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.

Goestenkors also won the ACC Coach of the Year award in 2007 for the seventh time in fifteen years.

Goestenkors left Texas following the 2011–12 season citing fatigue.

In 2014–2015, she was an assistant coach with the Indiana Fever and the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association.

Born in Waterford, Michigan, Goestenkors attended Saginaw Valley State University, where she played under future Purdue head coach Marsha Reall.

Goestenkors was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as one of six members of the Class of 2015.