Lindsay Whalen opens up about departure from Gophers on KFAN

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Lindsay Whalen spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday since her departure from the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team in March.

Whalen was in-studio for a 30-minute segment on KFAN Radio with Dan Barreiro and Justin Gaard, the play-by-play voice for Gophers’ women’s basketball. Whalen stepped down as coach the day after the Gophers lost to Penn State in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, after five seasons. She went 71-76 overall, including 32-58 in the Big Ten.

The Gophers finished last season 11-19, including 4-14 in league play. After the loss to Penn State, Whalen was planning exit meetings with players, talking with staff about the future and texting with high school coaches about seeing recruits in their playoffs. That night, she got a text from Gophers Athletic Director Mark Coyle to meet in the morning.

"We met the day after the season, and by that point, it was in that meeting I agreed to resign. By that point, there wasn’t going to be the option that I was going to return," Whalen told Barreiro. "It’s my alma mater, I’ll resign and at the time I was going to stay on, as the days went on it was just kind of best that I moved on."

Those conversations started as far back as two years ago, at the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans. Whalen was there as part of the process to be inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. At that time, seven players had transferred out of the program, five had graduated and Whalen had secured the best recruiting class in program history, all with Minnesota players.

She was struggling, but wanted to see it through.

It was in February she started to realize her coaching career with the Gophers might be coming to a close.

"It was a struggle, I was having a hard time eating at night. You feel the pressure of winning, alma mater and I want to do well for our state," Whalen said. "At that point there was definitely times where I was like I think it would be best if somebody else (took over). By that point it was done."

Whalen had initially agreed to stay on as a special assistant to Coyle, and an ambassador for the women’s program helping in recruiting and NIL. That changed after a few days, and we learned in June she accepted a $215,000 termination fee to leave the school.

After meeting with Coyle, she talked with her team. She was set to meet the media with Coyle, but declined at the last second.

"That was tough, that was a really emotional set of hours coming off the night before. I was like I just need to go home," Whalen said.

Since March, she had only made one public appearance that was basketball-related. The Minnesota Lynx were honoring the top players in their franchise, and her teammates had jerseys retired. The Gophers introduced Dawn Plitzuweit as her replacement in late March. Whalen said she’ll always support the program. After all, she led them to their only Final Four in 2003.

"I really wanted the dust to settle. I wanted to move on, I wanted the women on the team to be able to move on, I wanted the program to move on. I think Dawn is going to do a great job. I always will, I’m Minnesota," Whalen said.

Whalen learned a lot in her time with the Gophers. She was offered her dream job, and had to take a chance despite not having any head coaching experience. She wanted to be the next star player to have it translate to the bench.

In hindsight, both she and probably Coyle wishes Whalen had prior experience.

"It’s your dream job. How could you say no at the time? It’s impossible to say no, you might never get that chance again. For five years, I put everything I had into coaching," Whalen said. "Knowing what I know now, it would’ve been beneficial for me for sure to learn under somebody for a time. You want to have this 20-year storybook career of Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame coach. It just wasn’t meant, but a lot of good came out of it."