Inside the W: Michelle Smith: Whalen Tackles New Challenge

Ignatius L Hoops

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http://www.wnba.com/news/inside-the-w-whalen-tackles-new-challenge-in-15th-season/

Lindsay Whalen said it’s been “the craziest two weeks” of her life.

The four-time WNBA Champion, who has been on the floor for more wins than any player in WNBA history, chose this craziness.

She saw the opportunity of a lifetime – a lifetime that has thus far been committed to bringing basketball excellence to her home state of Minnesota – and true to style, she drove straight for the rim.

Along with helping lead the Lynx this season, Whalen is now the new head coach the University of Minnesota’s women’s basketball program. Giving her a chance to transfer the leadership and competitive fire that have led to WNBA titles and Olympic gold medals, and to bring it to a new generation of players...


...Whalen has been living off a long to-do for the past two weeks, leaning heavily already on her two newly hired assistant coaches, Kelly Roysland (her former college teammate at Minnesota) and Carly Thibault-DuDonis, the daughter of Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault.

She made those hires, has hit the road for recruiting, attended the Big Ten women’s basketball coaches meetings and is communicating with her new players at Minnesota.

All the while, she has been preparing for her new WNBA season with the defending champion Lynx as they try to be the first WNBA team to repeat as champions since Los Angeles did it in 2001 and 2002.

She is maximizing every hour of the day, making phone calls, taking meetings, doing interviews, watching video and planning.

Whalen didn’t seek this opportunity, so she admits she wasn’t quite ready for the scramble that has taken place since the day she was introduced as the Gophers’ head coach.

“In some ways, it’s easier because I just don’t know what I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t know a lot of this stuff was my responsibility and now I know. It’s a steep learning curve, but I’m just going into it, treating every day like a new and interesting challenge. But most of the things I’m doing, I’m definitely learning as a I go...

...Whalen said it’s all worth it for a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“I always hoped at some point that I might have a chance of coaching at the U of M,” Whalen said. “And then it comes up and I’m thinking ‘Whatever I have to do to get the job, I’ll do it.’ Once the opportunity presents itself, you have to take it.”
 


Posting to last year's Lynx thread just now, I re-read something I wrote last fall about the - speculative at that time - notion that Whalen would end up assistant coaching or head coaching some day:

"Someone asked about Whalen transitioning to coaching. Who knows whether she has that knack or the other things it takes, but I will say this. In my gymnast daughter's freshman year of high school, they had an assistant coach who was a recent alumnus of the program, a very accomplished gymnast in her career. I remember when the Strib ran a story about their team (which was a record-setting awesome team), and I looked at her in the group picture and, not knowing her, thinking, "She looks like a sweet, nice person." And of course she is nice, but as a competitor and later as a coach, she was FIERY. My daughter loved her as a coach, but man, she got after them. More than that, she was able to transfer her fire to them, and that team achieved what everyone thought was impossible - overcoming an overwhelming, arguably unbeatable opponent to win the team state title. I still can't figure out exactly how that happened, but they did it. That coach moved out of state after that year, and although the base coaching staff is wonderful and are great motivators, I've always thought they missed something after the young assistant left. I see Whalen potentially being that kind of X-factor on a coaching staff."
 




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