Change hardly bothers Duke women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie, who discovered early in life that it is how you deal with transitions that matters.

The daughter of a Navy officer, McCallie was born in Monterey, Calif., but lived in Corpus Christi, Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Garden City, N.Y.; before her family settled in Maine.

As a college basketball player and then coach, she lived in Illinois, Alabama and Michigan, becoming more adept at moving with every zip code change.

"I've had change all my life," said McCallie, who now resides in Durham.

The ability to handle change has served her well during this first season at Duke, where she has been greeted with support, curiosity and scorn.

Those early days on the move, along with 15 years of head coaching experience -- and a trip to the 2005 Final Four -- equipped McCallie for what could be her toughest transition yet.

Since last April, when she was named to replace coach Gail Goestenkors, who took the top job at Texas, there has been a sea of change at Duke and in the 42-year-old coach's life.

There's the move from North to South. The switch from the Big Ten to the ACC. The transfer from a public to a private school.

Duke, which finished the 2007 regular season undefeated, lost All-America seniors Lindsey Harding and Alison Bales. This season, the Blue Devils, adjusting to life without the beloved Goestenkors for the first time in 15 years, finished the regular season with the most losses since 1997-98.

"It's been a transition, without question," McCallie said.

Fan criticism

ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli said many were curious to see how McCallie, with a budding reputation and solid credentials, would handle the transition.

"She's come in and wants to ... implement her style of play, and I think it just takes time," Antonelli said.

But fans can be about as patient as children at a McDonald's.

Sue Unruhe, 54, works at Duke and has been a women's basketball fan for 26 years. She said her patience has run thin.

"I am very upset about the state of Duke women's basketball and very disappointed in the coach," she said. "What I see is a stagnant, non-moving offense ... and really unhappy players.

"The body language of the players is drooping shoulders and less energy. They are not fighting hard and not taking it to that next level that I'm used to seeing."

While McCallie has received enthusiastic support, she's also taken some lumps from those who watched Goestenkors reach four Final Fours and turn the women's program into a nationally recognized powerhouse.

Some fans voiced disappointment after early season losses to Vanderbilt, Penn State and later, No. 2-ranked North Carolina. Not to mention the Internet vitriol, with one anonymous poster questioning, "Whose this bum that replaced Coach G?"

This is what McCallie calls the "stinky part" of the job.

"People hate you," she told the Greensboro Sports Council in January. "People think they know everything better than you do, then they want to kiss you."

She doesn't shy away. As is her nature, the Northwestern graduate gets directly to the point.

"The thing you wonder as a coach is why people would reveal themselves so poorly when we've been here six months?" she said last month. "If I didn't feel good about something, I'd wait it through. I'd give it some time."

McCallie said she is only referring to a small fringe group.

"A lot of people here -- that perimeter group -- say, 'I support the program,' " she said. "You don't support the program unless you support all elements. So you don't support the coaches, you don't support the program. I've had to let people know that pretty clearly."

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