'It's worth fighting for': Lindsay Whalen opens up about trying 2nd season with Gophers
Lindsay Whalen Gophers women's basketball
MINNEAPOLIS - In probably her most candid interview since taking over University of Minnesota women’s basketball program, Lindsay Whalen talked Tuesday on KFAN's Golden Gopher podcast with Justin Gaard about the stresses and her passion for the Gophers after second season as head coach.
The Gophers finished 16-15 this year, including a 5-13 mark in Big Ten play after getting to the WNIT and winning a game in her inaugural season. Most notably, the season took a turn after Whalen suspended star guard Destiny Pitts for conduct unbecoming of the program in mid-January.
She did not play in the team’s loss at Illinois, and two other players, Taiye and Kehinde Bello, did not travel to Illinois in what was later learned to be a protest of Pitts’ suspension. A few days later, Pitts announced on social media her decision to leave the program and pursue a transfer. She was Minnesota’s leading scorer and top perimeter shooting threat. Two seasons ago, she was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
In a roughly 30-minute interview with Gaard, Whalen revealed that she had difficulty sleeping and eating during the season, and lost 15 pounds as a result.
“You never want things to go the way they did where we have a player leave. It just was, you have a couple players that didn’t come on the Illinois trip, it was awful. It was awful, and you try to just think back what could I have done differently, what should we have done differently?” Whalen said.
On top of it all, they had to prepare to face Iowa a day after Pitts left the program. The Gophers led that game most of the way before the Hawkeyes hit a late 3-pointer to leave Minnesota with a gut-wrenching 76-75 loss for the Gophers.
It was during a stretch of five straight losses, and seven in eight games. Whalen said it’s an experience everybody can learn from.
“It’s definitely not something anybody wants to go through, but the culture here and what can be done at Minnesota on the women’s basketball team, it’s worth fighting for because it’s something that changed my life and it’s so special to me,” Whalen said. “I’m not sitting here as the head coach without my time here at the U as a player and everything that the university has done for me. It’s worth fighting for. I definitely was not perfect and you try to do things as best you can, I know it’s worth fighting for because I’ve been here and I’ve been able to see the success.“
If anyone knows what it takes to make the Gophers a winner, it’s Whalen. She led Minnesota to its only Final Four in 203-04 season, and had Williams Arena sold out on a regular basis to watch women’s basketball.
We’ll never know publicly why Pitts was suspended. There are school and program rules in place to prevent that information from getting out. We’ll also probably never know why Pitts decided to transfer, instead of earn the trust back of her head coach.
Athletic Director Mark Coyle hired Whalen to run the program her way. That’s exactly what she intends to do.
“It was something that we want to win, but we have to do things the right way. There’s accountability and respect that has to take place. It was the first time in my career that I was put in that position where I had to really feel like I had to take a stand for doing things the right way in my program. That’s what I tried to do and it definitely wasn’t easy,” Whalen said.