The Guru’s NCAW Report: Gosselin Stresses “Continuity,” Elevating to Princeton’s Head Coach

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PRINCETON, N.J. – When it came to seeking a successor to former Princeton coach Carla Berube after the extraordinarily successful past UConn star gave John Mack the word she was heading to Northwestern to succeed the retiring Joe McKeown, the Northeast Philly native who announced last spring that 2025-26 would be his final season, the Tigers athletic director took an altered path than the one Temple University founder Russell Conwell described in his famed Acres of Diamond lecture.

Conwell spoke of a farmer selling his land to look for gold only for the new landowner to discover a motherlode of wealth on the existing real estate.

Mack on one hand also did national diligence considering the attraction the Princeton vacancy offered, but still in possession of the deed to the program, he also included checking the existing property, especially with players campaigning on associate head coach Lauren Gosselin’s behalf “within an hour” of learning the departure of Berube, who found the Wildcats offer in the Big Ten program from former Villanova AD Mark Jackson one she could not refuse.

He said players spoke both of caring and toughness as redeeming traits possessed by the new coach.

Mack also revealed in recent seasons many schools with vacancies sought to speak with both Berube and Gosselin but neither were inclined to leave though he suspected change might be in play this time around.

“It was a full search, an extensive search, but we ended up in the right spot,” Mack said here Thursday afternoon in Jadwin Gym at the introductory press conference announcing the elevation of Gosselin who came here seven years ago from Tufts with Berube after Courtney Banghart, who made the program nationally relevant, departed for North Carolina in the now Power 4 world of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“We went around the nation and ended up down the hallway back here at Jadwin,” Mack said.

Berube and Gosselin did not miss a beat arriving here after Banghart, racking up Ivy League regular season and tournament titles, NCAA early round success and appearances in the Associated Press women’s poll that just celebrated its 50th anniversary season.

To say that Gosselin easily won the press conference Thursday is no understatement, but unlike many first-time head coaches across the nation who have leaped that first hurdle, Gosselin is not likely to make the moment the only highlight of her coming era holding the door keys to Jadwin.

On one hand Gosselin, the all-time Division II program scorer for Bentley with 2,100 points and a national title under Hall of Famer Barb Stevens in Massachusetts, noted as she showed the awareness of what comes with the territory in the wake of two Tigers coaching legends.

“I know I have big shoes to fill,” she said, “but luckily, Carla and I are the same size, and l’m fortunate that she left a few pairs from her collection upstairs for me, and I promise to wear them well.”

A core returning from this season’s champions who spent many weeks ranked should make it an easy fit and it would not be surprising to see her next spring claim the Maggie Dixon Award from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association that goes to the top rookie mentor.

The upside of taking charge is Gosselin, married with a 10-month-old son, already knows the territory here quite well opposed to having to go through the getting-to-know-you process that comes at a new university, which she and Mack both acknowledged.

“…the continuity piece will be key,” Gosselin said. “I don’t want to recreate the wheel. We have a system that works, and now it’s just enhancing that.

“In a collegiate world that is becoming increasingly transactional, Princeton remains transformational. You can know everything, but if you don’t have that relationship piece with your players, with the alumni, with our supporters, you’re not going to go very far.”

Mack also noted the benefit of already having in-house familiarity with the program and overall university.

“ When you’ve been here, when you can speak to the experience, when you have demonstrated that you share our values, and when you’ve done good work, that shows up in interviews in a lot of ways that people coming from the outside aren’t quite able to speak to as well,” Mack said.

Princeton spared no expense once the decision was made to spotlight Gosselin’s hire, to the point of placing the news on a billboard alonside the nearby busy highway corridor of U.S. 1.

“My husband Andrew nearly crashed his car trying to get a picture of it,” Gosselin quipped. “It’s very surreal. Certainly, never thought my face would be on a Route 1 billboard.”

Asked if Princeton would play Northwestern soon, Gosselin smiled and replied, “Ask Carla.”