Joanne Palombo-McCallie (born Joanne Elizabeth Palombo; September 6, 1965) is an American college basketball coach and advocate for mental health who most recently served as the head coach of the Duke University women's basketball team.
McCallie became the first Division I head coach to win a conference title in four different conferences (the ACC, Big Ten, America East and North Atlantic), and also the first Division I coach to be named conference coach of the year in four different conferences. She was only the second Division I head coach to lead two different programs to 30-win seasons, and also to lead two different programs to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. McCallie has three National Championship game appearances in her career (one as a head coach and two as an assistant), and has been named conference coach of the year five times. She has coached twelve players who have received All-America honors, and at Duke alone, sixteen players have gone on to play professionally, six being first-round picks.
McCallie has also won a gold medal as coach of the 2006 U20 National team and the 2007 U21 World Championship team. Since her first season at Duke in 2007, McCallie has led the Women's basketball team to an overall record of 141–32, a 60–12 record in the ACC alone, and was announced the ACC Coach of the year in 2010 and 2012.
Coaching career
Duke
McCallie was named head coach at Duke on April 18, 2007, replacing Gail Goestenkors, who had left to coach at Texas. McCallie won 82 games in her first three years at Duke. For a coach in her first three years at a Division I school, this was the second-most wins in NCAA Division I history. McCallie reached 100 wins at Duke in only 122 games, being the second-quickest to ever reach 100 wins at a school. In only four years, the Blue Devils had a record of 114–26 overall, a 45–11 conference record, and four NCAA Tournament selections, including a No. 1 seed in 2009 and Elite Eight appearances in 2010 and 2011. In her first season at Duke in 2007–2008, McCallie led Duke to its 10th straight 25-win season with an appearance in the ACC Championship game and a trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 which marked the 11th consecutive appearance in the regional semifinals for the program. In her fourth season, McCallie guided Duke to its seventh ACC Championship, 10th regular season ACC title in school history along with an appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight. During this season McCallie also had her second straight 30-win season at Duke, including a 17–0 mark at home in Cameron Indoor Stadium; the third undefeated campaign at home in Duke's school history and the second under McCallie. Most recently, McCallie has led the Blue Devils to the 2010 and 2011 ACC Championship, which marked the sixth and seventh overall conference titles in school history. She led Duke to its ninth 30-win season out of the last 11 years, and in 2010–2011 led Duke to a 17–0 record at home; marking just the third time in school history the Blue Devils have gone undefeated in Cameron Indoor Stadium in one season. Additionally, McCallie recorded a 10-2 record for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge while at Duke.
McCallie's teams were major competitors in the NCAA Tournament. McCallie led her team to seven Sweet Sixteen games and four straight Elite Eights.
During her tenure at Duke, McCallie dealt with an investigation related to concerns about player transfers and the atmosphere. The former Duke vice president and director of athletics, Kevin White released a statement in support of McCallie, "Joanne P. McCallie is and will be, our head women's basketball coach and we support her."
In August 2017, following a season where McCallie led her team to be ranked ninth in the nation and the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Duke extended her contract through the 2020–21 season.
McCallie closed out what would be her final season (2019/2020) ranked third in the ACC. The postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 2, 2020, McCallie announced that she would not return to Duke for the 2020-2021 season after 13 seasons with the school.
On February 16, 2021, McCallie released her second book 'Secret Warrior', a memoir that chronicled her battle with a bipolar diagnosis. She currently is speaking and working as an advocate for those facing mental health issues.