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Goestenkors To Remain On USA Basketball National Team Staff
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (February 8, 2007) ? The 2006 USA Women’s World Championship Team assistant coaches will return to the sidelines for the USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team program through the 2008 Olympics, provided the U.S. qualifies for the Beijing Games, USA Basketball announced today. WNBA head coach Mike Thibault of the Connecticut Sun and collegiate head coaches Gail Goestenkors of Duke University (N.C.) and Temple University’s (Pa.) Dawn Staley will assist USA head coach Anne Donovan (Seattle Storm) and the 2007-08 USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team as it looks to qualify for the 2008 Olympics and defend the USA’s streak of three Olympic gold medals. The selections were made by the USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team Committee and approved by the USA Basketball Executive Committee.
The USA’s next chance to qualify for the 2008 Olympics will be at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, slated for Sept. 25‑29 in Valdivia, Chile. The gold medalist at that tournament will earn a berth to the Beijing Olympic 12-nation field. In addition to the USA, teams participating in the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship will be Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Jamaica and Mexico. Should the United States not return home from Chile with the gold medal, there will be one final chance to qualify for the Olympics at the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament slated for June 9-15 at a site TBD.
“The Committee felt strongly that the USA Senior National Team would benefit from keeping this coaching staff together for the next two years,” said Committee chair Rene? Brown, WNBA chief of basketball operations and player relations. “Mike, Gail and Dawn worked hand-in-hand with Anne and the team, and the players truly believed in the staff and highly respect their knowledge of the game.”
“Our staff in 2006 was outstanding,” said Donovan. “Mike, Gail and Dawn bring so much experience and I have a tremendous amount of respect for each of them and the knowledge that they bring to our USA Senior National Team. I think the staff consistency is vital to the development of our Senior National Team. I was thrilled to be coaching alongside such great people first and tremendous coaches second and I’m looking forward to working with them again over the next two years.”
The three selected coaches have extensive knowledge of USA Basketball, the international game and the players in the USA Senior National Team program and the trio combined owns 15 gold medals, two silvers, four bronzes and 10 first place finishes at various international invitational tournaments. Additionally, in their most recent endeavors prior to the 2006 Worlds, Goestenkors served as an assistant coach to Van Chancellor for the gold medalist 2002 USA World Championship and 2004 U.S. Olympic Teams; Staley, a seasoned veteran in the international arena, played alongside nearly every member of the ?06 squad at some point in her career; and Thibault worked alongside Donovan during the 2006 USA Women’s Senior National Team’s spring training that included a total of 26 athletes at three separate training camps.
"I was so happy and really pleased that we have the opportunity to stay together,” said Goestenkors, who since beginning her tenure at Duke in 1992-93 has guided the Blue Devils to 11 NCAA Tournaments, including the NCAA Final Four in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006 and the title game in ?06. “Our staff had great chemistry and we worked together well. When you’re in stressful situation and adverse environments, I think it’s important that the staff feel comfortable and good about one another. We got along well, we worked well together and we’re willing to go to war for and with each other.”
Goestenkors is off to another great start in 2006-07, boasting a perfect 24-0 slate (all records as of 2/07/07) and a No. 1 national ranking. The 2005 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year has been a head coach of two USA Basketball squads, most recently the gold medal winning 2005 USA U19 Women’s World Championship Team.
“I’m really excited. I feel like we have some unfinished business to take care of because we didn’t reach our goal of winning a gold medal at the World Championship,” said long-time USA Basketball team member Staley, who retired from playing in international competition after collecting her third Olympic gold medal in 2004 and will serve her second stint on the USA Basketball sidelines with this selection. “We must dethrone Australia and bring the gold back to the United States. It is not going to be an easy battle, but I think we have the talent and motivation to go out and do that.”
Staley was a proven winner on the court and has proven her mettle in turning the Owls into a successful program over her six-plus seasons at Temple. Since taking the reigns of the program for the 2000-01 season Staley has guided the Owls to four NCAA Tournaments in six seasons. She is on her way to a possible fourth consecutive NCAA berth after piloting the Owls to an 18-5 mark to start the year, including a 14-1 record over her last 15 games.
“I’m really looking forward to this,” said Thibault, who in four years coaching women’s basketball has guided the Sun to a pair of WNBA Finals and was named the 2006 WNBA Coach of the Year after capping 2006 with the second straight league-best record of 26-8. “We had a lot of fun as a group, we all worked well together. I think we’ve learned a lot about the players that we have, the staff we have and what we need to do to put ourselves in a position to win gold. I think that all of us bring different things to the table. That’s one of the good things about this staff, you always want to get different ideas, different strengths and blend them and that’s what we have. I had such a great experience with this group last year and I’m looking forward to working with them again.”
Prior to arriving in the WNBA he spent 13 years coaching professional men’s teams in the NBA and CBA and served as head coach of USA Basketball men’s squads that captured silver at the 1995 Pan American Games and gold at the 1993 FIBA Americas (formerly known as COPABA) World Championship Qualifying Tournament.
Host China and 2006 FIBA World Championship gold medalist Australia have earned automatic berths to the 2008 Olympic women’s basketball tournament. Five additional teams will qualify to play in Beijing through 2007 FIBA zone qualifying tournaments as the gold medalists in each of the FIBA zones (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania) advance to compete in the ?08 Olympic Games.
The second through fourth place teams from the FIBA Americas Championship, along with nine other national teams from around the globe that did not claim gold at the remaining FIBA zones, including two from Africa (silver and bronze medalists), two from Asia (silver and bronze medalists), four from Europe (second through fourth place finishers) and one from Oceania (silver medalist) will compete for the final five Olympic slots at the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The coaching staff selections are pending approval of the U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors.
2007-08 USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Anne Donovan, Seattle Storm
Assistant Coach: Gail Goestenkors, Duke University (N.C.)
Assistant Coach: Dawn Staley, Temple University (Pa.)
Assistant Coach: Mike Thibault, Connecticut Sun
For complete USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team coaching staff bios, please go to USABasketball.com.
Additional Quotes
Looking at the next couple of years, what do you see as the biggest challenge for the team?
I think the rest of the world has gained confidence so we’re going to have to be at the top of our game. We’re beginning to see new leaders emerge. Last year was a little difficult for us with the changing of the guard without Dawn (Staley) playing, Lisa (Leslie) wasn’t there, Sheryl (Swoopes) was injured and Yolanda Griffith wasn’t there. Those are veteran players who have been through the toughest of times and they knew what it took to win gold medals. And now we’re developing a new personality, it’s really a new era.
Looking towards the FIBA Americas Championship, in order to qualify for the Olympics this year the U.S. must win that tournament. While there will be many competitive teams there, Brazil, which the USA defeated 99-59 in the bronze medal contest, will most likely be the toughest team to beat. How hard do you think it will be to win that tournament?
In the bronze medal game Brazil was playing without their center (6-6 Alessandra Santos de Oliveira), who was injured, so we can’t get any false confidence by the margin of victory in that game. They’re a tough team to beat and always come ready to play with so much passion. However, I have no doubt that we’ll be ready to play. We are extremely determined to win the gold medal and bring home that automatic berth to the Olympics.
Dawn Staley
What are your thoughts on working with the USA Senior National Team and this staff through 2008?
It’s a pretty good fit. We have the spectrum of calm, poised and hyper, and the expertise of basketball at the highest level. We have it all, we have everything covered. We get along well, we work great together, everybody is respectful of everyone else’s opinion. When you have a cohesive group like that, it trickles down to the players and ensures that it’s reciprocated from the coaches to the players and players back to the coaches.
How much pressure will there be this summer in Chile for the U.S. to win the gold and earn the automatic Olympic berth?
Anytime you don’t win the World Championship gold medal to go to the Olympics, there’s pressure on you no matter what country you’re representing. Right now we’re not feeling very good about ourselves because we fell short of our goal. But our players, the coaching staff’s going to come back and try to work hard to make sure we can lock up that berth, our participation in the 2008 Olympics. Of course there’s pressure, there’s always pressure when you put on the USA uniform and this won’t be any different.
Mike Thibault
How much pressure will there be this summer in Chile for the U.S. to win the gold and earn the automatic Olympic berth?
Anytime you’re in a tournament where you have to win to avoid another process, everybody’s playing with a sense of purpose and a sense of desperation. I’m going to assume that we’re going to get everybody’s best effort. Brazil, when everybody’s healthy, is capable of competing with all the top teams in the world. We might have caught them on the right day, but I think we were very good that day too. The match-ups, the things that we were really prepared for, how to play them and obviously we got an unbelievable game out of Diana (Taurasi) that day. But I feel that when we play the way we’re capable of playing, everyone else has to worry about playing against us and our job as coaches is to make sure we’re prepared to play at that same level that we played at that day (against Brazil in the 2006 World Championship bronze medal game).
Looking at the next couple of years, what do you see as the biggest challenge for the team?
I think the biggest challenges come from within first. It’s imperative that we as coaches, along with the committee, find the right combination of players to fill the different roles that need to be filled. We’re headed toward a process where we’re not just trying to throw together an all-star team and go play. We want to put together a team that fits together, that has balance, with players who can play multiple positions, players who can fill defensive and offensive needs. I think that’s the biggest challenge, to make sure that we come up with a group that fits all those requirements. It’s not about taking the 12 best players, it’s taking the 12 best players that fit together and create the best team. That’s one of the biggest responsibilities that we have over the next 18 months or so.
