McCallie, or Coach P as she’s affectionately called (the P stands for her maiden name Palombo), dreamt of one day being in this very position. But she’s been so engrossed in leading a new program and living what she described as her “dream job,” she hasn’t had an opportunity to process how it came to fruition.

“I imagine that will happen in the spring some time, when I can look around and really absorb that feeling of, ‘Isn’t it really great to be at Duke.’ ”

Entering her 16th season as a head coach, McCallie made her way to Durham via Michigan State, where she spent seven seasons, leading the Spartans to a 149-75 record. She led the team to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances, four straight 20-win seasons and an appearance in the NCAA Championship game in 2005. She molded Michigan State basketball into an elite national program with a 81-23 record in her last three years.

The daughter of a Navy pilot, McCallie is known in basketball circles as an intense competitor with an affinity for Duke since she was a standout point guard at Brunswick High School in Maine and had to decide where to play ball and attend college. She narrowed her final choices between Duke and Northwestern, eventually deciding on Northwestern.

But she kept an eye on the Duke program.

“At Duke, our staff is blessed to be at the best basketball laboratory nationwide,” she wrote to fans in her online journal, Coach P Notebook. “We can do so much with such fine, smart, athletic and tough-minded women. There are no limits and our play and attack will reflect that fact. Fast, furious, tough and talented marked by a fighting spirit that will be second to none.”

McCallie played her collegiate career at Northwestern, where, as a senior, she was an All Big Ten honorable mention selection.

After graduating from Northwestern in 1987 with a degree in political science, McCallie worked for a Chicago telecommunications firm. She wanted to get an MBA and began looking for graduate assistant positions around the country and landed at Auburn, where she earned a master’s degree in business administration and joined the staff of women’s basketball coach Joe Ciampi as a full-time assistant. 

“I really began to see how the game was taught,” McCallie said. “Joe was the first person to show me there is a thing called coaching, and you do teach this game. And there is a way to do it.”

After four years at Auburn, she joined the University of Maine in 1992 for her first head coaching job at age 26. In her eight seasons at the helm of the Black Bears, McCallie registered seven straight 20-win campaigns and went to the NCAA Tournament six times.

“What could be more fun than going back to your home state?” she said. “Everyone was really supportive… I then began to really love coaching.”

That led to a seven-year stay at Michigan State, where she guided the Spartans to the NCAA Tournament five times; the team advanced to the NCAA National Championship game in 2005.

McCallie’s accomplishments, including being named National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, helped pave a way to Duke, where she hit the ground running. She spent work days in Durham and weekends in Michigan with her husband, John, and children, Maddie and Jack.

Over the summer, she traveled overseas and coached the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Under 21 national team, winning the gold medal in Russia, before hitting the road again to recruit. Soon after, she began preparing for the fast-approaching season, which McCallie knew would be challenging with the coaching transition.

 “This is a crazy time for me and my family,” McCallie said at the time. “But, sometimes in life you just have to seize the moment and keep that faith that all will come together in a very special way. John has been a gem in terms of providing great stability to our family while I run and fly all over the place.”

After starting the Duke season with six straight wins, the team lost three straight games in eight days – the first to No. 2 Connecticut, the second to No. 20 Vanderbilt, the third to unranked Penn State – all on the road. It was the first time since 1994 that a Duke team had lost three in a row.

“She’s always encouraged us and told us when times are hard, that’s when you have to stay together the most,” said Duke sophomore guard Keturah Jackson. “So I think, with those three losses, not only have we drawn close together, but we’ve learned to trust each other more. It’s helped us grow a lot already.”

In addition to adjusting to a new coach, players were adapting to life without central figures during the last four years – All Americans Alison Bales and Lindsey Harding. On top of that, Duke was hit hard by player injuries early in the season.

“You coach and bring your philosophy and teach, but you don’t make any illusions about it,” McCallie said. “You just sort of keep doing. It’s just one step in front of the other; just simple, simple steps of having experiences with each other. You’ve got to travel together. You’ve got to have adversity together.”

In their game against No. 4 Rutgers at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Blue Devils knocked off the Scarlet Knights 49-44, kicking off a seven-game winning streak.

“She has a lot of philosophies and teaches a lesson in everything she tells us,” said Jackson, the sophomore guard. “Sometimes, we’ll come in and we’ll have a quote we have to memorize, and we’ll have to think about how we can apply it to basketball and apply it to life.”

While McCallie and the team work toward a 14th straight NCAA Tournament bid, the nature of the season and demands of her time will not allow her much time to ponder how special a place Duke is.

She already knows.

“I love the crowd at Cameron,” she said. “They shake the place. That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”