I covered both Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville, two Gopher greats recruited and signed by Cheryl Littlejohn, the second Black women’s basketball head coach at Minnesota, through their careers as players and now as coaches.
“Back Together Again” by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway feels fitting for Whay and Mac, nicknamed “Cold Blooded” and “Big Mac” in college by this longest-tenured Gopher and Lynx beat reporter, now in their first year together as Minnesota Lynx assistant coaches. They’ve been reunited since the two played together for three seasons, including two WNBA Finals appearances and the 2013 title.
“Reunited” by Peaches and Herb also comes to mind, as this longtime reporter sat down with the former Gopher for an interview after a recent practice.
“It’s a great fit so far,” McCarville said. “It’s fun being back with Whay and (Rebekkah) Brunson. I understand what Cheryl [Reeve] was looking for, and I’m here to help the next set of kids coming up be prepared.”
We both chuckled when I reminded McCarville of her insistence that she would never go into coaching. While playing in Sweden near the end of her pro career, she served as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams there.
After retiring as a player in 2022, McCarville returned to her old high school in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, to coach, first as the girls JV coach, then promoted to head coach, a role she still holds and relishes.
“The basketball season in Wisconsin doesn’t start until Nov. 9,” McCarville pointed out, “so I get a week off” between when the Lynx season concludes and when she prepares for the winter prep season.
“I like the high school aspects,” she continued. “Sometimes it’s babysitting because ball is not life for everybody, but I still give them skill sets and I’m able to help them with strategy, learning how to deal with problem solving on the go, taking constructive criticism.”
But that’s the good part. “Parents are involved more, and that sometimes takes away from the coaching aspect and what you want to do with kids. They have two voices. They hear your voice and they go home and hear the parents’ voice. That’s the hardest part.”
“She is one of the smartest players, men’s or women’s, that ever played the game,” Whalen said of her friend, teammate and coaching compadre, McCarville, was named to the All-25 Lynx Team in 2023.
McCarville logged nearly two decades of playing, first at Minnesota, where she finished among the top five in many statistical categories as a four-year starter. She then became the first Gopher women’s player selected No. 1 overall, taken by Charlotte in the 2005 WNBA Draft.
Unlike her steady college career, Mac’s pro career was more turbulent. But when she played, she excelled, earning the 2007 Most Improved Player award in New York, where she landed after Charlotte folded and she was picked up in the dispersal draft.
She was also suspended by New York and sat out the 2011 season after not reporting for training camp. The following season, McCarville took the year off to be with her family.
The Liberty traded her to Minnesota in 2013, where McCarville was a serviceable post player in helping the Lynx to the 2013 title, reunited with her college point guard Whalen.
Back pain finally got the best of McCarville, who sat out the 2015 season but returned for her final year in Minnesota in 2016.
Overall, she played 17 seasons, including nine in the W and overseas, winning the 2010 EuroLeague title.
“I’ve had lots of experiences,” she reflected. “I’ve got friends around the world, speak a couple of languages, mostly fluent … able to associate with people in different cultures.
“I never would have thought basketball would have given me that in eighth grade shooting hoops on the side of a barn with cow pies all over the place, but here I am,” she said proudly.
Back in Minnesota. Back with Whalen and the Lynx.
“She was a big reason why I agreed to come here,” McCarville admitted of Whalen. “It’s like no time has passed. I followed her when she was with the Gophers as the head coach.
“I was excited to obviously reunite with Brunson as well, but a lot of it was Lindsay,” the first-year Lynx assistant coach said.
“Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers, perhaps?
“I assume she wouldn’t have the success she had without me. I wouldn’t have the success I had without her,” McCarville concluded. “We leaned on each other through the college years, and then again once we got overseas and professional, we still linked up, we still got together.
“We made time for each other, and I think that’s where the friendship lasts this long.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
Copyright © Charles Hallman