No denying Coach G is a hot commodity

Duke women's basketball coach Gail Goestenkors has heard the talk but divulges little about three tempting openings -- Texas, LSU and Florida

RALEIGH -- Gail Goestenkors' Duke Blue Devils are 31-1.

She has never lost a first-round NCAA Women's Tournament game, and she has reached four Final Fours.

Goestenkors has had one losing season at Duke -- her first in 1993 -- and would win her 400th game if her Blue Devils claim the national championship.

Her program is clean, without even a whisper of scandal. She's one of the most well-liked and respected coaches in the game. She took over what had been a lower-tier ACC program and turned it into a national power.

That's why Goestenkors is one of the hottest commodities in women's basketball right now. Goestenkors leads her Blue Devils at 5 p.m. today against eighth-seeded Temple in the RBC Center for the right to advance to the Greensboro Regional.

There are three high-profile openings in college basketball -- Florida, LSU and Texas. The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman has reported Goestenkors is high on the Longhorns' target list, and Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley has made it no secret that he wants to build a championship program in Gainesville, Fla.

Goestenkors said she has not been contacted by any schools. But she has heard the rumors about other schools' interest.

"It's flattering because the jobs that they're talking about are exceptional jobs," she said.

Duke athletics director Joe Alleva said other schools' interest in Goestenkors is normal.

"I hear from schools about Gail every year," Alleva said Thursday at the men's NCAA Tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. "I think she's a great coach. She's our coach. Hope she's going to be our coach for a long time."

When asked if Duke would match any potential offers to keep Goestenkors, Alleva repeated, "Gail is our coach and I hope she's going to be our coach for a long time."

Goestenkors said she is in the second year of a four-year contract. Duke is a private institution and does not reveal coaches' salaries.

Goestenkors' colleagues in the Triangle -- North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell and N.C. State coach Kay Yow -- are signed through 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Hatchell signed an extension in the offseason and makes $250,000 a year in annual salary. Yow's salary is $200,000. Those figures do not include other income, such as basketball camps.

Goestenkors said her future "will definitely not be a distraction," during the NCAA Women's Tournament. "I have only one interest and one focus -- and that's my team."

Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry said it's not really that hard to ignore such talk. Curry left Purdue after last season but said that for five of her seven years at Purdue, there was speculation she'd leave.

"The biggest thing that you do is make sure your kids see no change in you," said Curry, who made $425,000 her first season at Texas Tech. "You prepare them the same. You have the same smile on your face. You have the same energy."

Curry said point-blank honesty is also important. Goestenkors has already warned her team about the rumors. Senior Lindsey Harding said Goestenkors told the team there were newspaper articles naming her as a candidate and that reporters would be asking questions.

Florida and Texas openings are a sign of how women's basketball is changing.

Foley fired Carolyn Peck -- who won the NCAA title in 1999 when she coached Purdue over Duke -- in the middle of the season because her team was mired in the bottom of the SEC.

Longtime Texas coach Jody Conradt resigned after her team missed the tournament two straight years.

Even coaches making the tournament aren't safe. Washington fired its coach this weekend after it lost to Iowa State in the NCAA first round.

Salaries and expenditures are rising in the sport. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt became the first women's coach to make more than $1 million last summer when she signed a new extension. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma is scheduled go over the $1 million mark in the 2007-2008 season.

"There's more money being put into women's basketball and therefore, there's more pressure to win," Goestenkors said. "The expectations are higher."

To Harding, it seems that as the women's game grows, it becomes more like the men's game.

"If the men are doing it and then we're doing it, I don't know if that makes us closer to where we want to be," Harding said. "It's a path that we can start to develop ourselves, but it's kind of hard to stray off when you know they've been so successful."

(Staff writer Luciana Chavez contributed to this report.)