Three Minnesota candidates to replace Lindsay Whalen

Mark Coyle, the athletic director of Minnesota, gambled a little bit on Lindsay Whalen in 2018. As a player, the Gophers legend made the women’s basketball program’s first and only Final Four appearance, which helped elevate the team to prominence in the early 2000s. When Coyle hired her to head her alma mater, she was still competing in the WNBA, having already won four league titles with the Minnesota Lynx.

In the state, people adored her. She had never been a head coach before, though. She had coached teams in the WNBA, Minnesota, and Team USA as a “coach on the floor,” but she had never led a team and program from the sidelines as a coach.
The university announced on Thursday that Whalen will resign as head coach but continue working there as a “special assistant to the athletics director” through the 2025 academic year, following five seasons and no trips to the NCAA Tournament.

With TCU announcing earlier this week that Raegan Pebley will leave at the end of the season, Whalen’s open seat is the second in a power conference for the 2023 coaching carousel. For the right candidate, Minnesota could be a sneaky-good opportunity.
The Athletic’s reporters have been speaking with head coaches of power conferences over the last few weeks in preparation for an impending anonymous survey. A question to consider is: Which school is a sleeping giant? A few coaches have already selected Minnesota, with one stating, “That’s a monster if they get the right coach.”

There are several grounds for thinking that could be the case. Had Coyle not known how much money the Gophers would have to pay to get the right coach to Minneapolis, he would not have taken this action. Shauna Green signed a six-year contract with Illinois last year, with a $800,000 base salary. And Green produced outcomes right away. It was the Illini’s first 20-win campaign since 2007–08. Whalen, in contrast, earned $547,000 this season and was projected to earn less than $600,000 the following year.