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Longhorns New Leadership:
Goestenkors brings her Duke successes to UT campus as first-year UT women’s basketball coach

The new academic year brings new leadership to the Longhorns women’s basketball team - new leadership for the first time in over three decades. The focus is on new head coach Gail Goestenkors, who is preparing for her first season with the Longhorns after building the Duke University women’s basketball program into a national power. Goestenkors took over at Texas this spring, following the retirement of UT’s legendary Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt.

Arriving at Duke in 1992, Goestenkors turned Duke into a perennial power, posting a sparkling 396-99 record and 13 NCAA Tournament appearances in 15 seasons. This included Duke’s rise to the national elite, as the Goestenkors-led Blue Devils advanced to four NCAA Women’s Final Fours since 1999, playing in the national title game twice (1999, 2006).

“I am absolutely honored to inherit the program Jody built here at UT, and I feel like she’s handing the baton off to me with her blessings,” noted Goestenkors, who received 12 National Coach of the Year honors during her Duke tenure. “I’m just so excited to take the baton and run, and to all the Longhorn faithful out there, we will be running! Our style of play will be pressing, running and trapping. It’s an exciting style of play which has created great excitement among the players and a style which I know will be really attractive to watch.”

Conradt retired from coaching in March after 38 years in the collegiate head coaching ranks, the last 31 spent at Texas. She left the game as the No. 2 all-time winningest coach in men’s and women’s college basketball history with a 900-307 overall record.

Last year, the Longhorns went 18-14. Lost from that team was the squad’s leading scorer for the last four seasons and top rebounder for three of those years – All-America post Tiffany Jackson (16.8 ppg, 9.0 rpg) who took her talents to the WNBA as the fifth pick overall in the 2007 draft.

Among the returning talent for Goestenkors’ are 5-9 senior guard and defensive stopper Erneisha Bailey (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) who was named to the Big 12 Conference’s five-member All-Defensive Team last year, along with versatile 6-1 sophomore redshirt Earnesia Williams and 5-7 sophomore point guard Carla Cortijo. All three were starters a year ago, with Williams averaging 9.5 points and five rebounds per game and Cortijo, an All-Big 12 Freshman Team standout, running the offense with a team-best 4.9 assists per game to go with 7.4 ppg.

Texas also counts on the return of 5-10 junior shooting guard Erika Arriaran (10.5 ppg). Arriaran, a two-year starter and the team’s top 3-point shooter, saw her sophomore year cut short last winter when she suffered an ACL knee injury which required season-ending surgery. Sophomore shooting guard Brittainey Raven, a consensus high school All-American, returns for her second year. The blazing-fast Raven started 25 games in her rookie season, averaging 8.0 ppg.

Other key returnees include 6-1 sophomore guard Niqky Hughes (4.2 ppg) and a pair of junior posts, 6-4 Ashley Lindsey (3.3 ppg, 30 blocks) and 6-3 Aubry Cook. Additionally, the frontcourt is strengthened with the addition of 6-3 redshirt freshman Kristen Nash, who missed last year with a foot injury. Two nationally-ranked 6-2 freshmen forwards who hail from Texas championship high school programs –Rachel Rentschler (Keller, Texas/Fort Worth Christian HS) and Kathleen Nash (Plano, Texas/Plano West HS), Kristen’s younger sister – will help bolster the inside attack.

2007-2008 Texas Women’s Basketball Schedule

(Times and Dates Subject to Change) ... All times listed are CENTRAL TIME-
Home Games in CAPS and played at the Frank Erwin Center
* Big 12 Conference game