The event, which includes a postgame question-and-answer session with Duffy and Goldsberry and an autograph session with players, started as one more personal to Duffy and Goldsberry, she said Tuesday morning in her Millett office.
“Frank and I wanted to reach out to people who have influenced us, on and off the court, from the (Amateur Athletic Union) Dayton Lady Hoopstars to the Tipp City to the Chaminade Julienne community — anybody who’s followed both of our careers,” Duffy said.
They started out contacting through social media anybody who might be interested.
“We put it out to hundreds of people,” Duffy said. “They started spreading the word. We’re hoping most of them can come.”
Duffy, a 2006 Notre Dame graduate, played professionally in the WNBA and overseas before embarking on a coaching career that included stops at St. John’s, George Washington and Michigan before she landed her first head coaching job with Miami in April.
Goldsberry, a Ball State graduate who earned a master’s degree in computer science at Dayton, started his coaching career in 1979 as the boys coach at Tippecanoe. He also coached the Northmont boys before taking the girls job at CJ. He moved into the college ranks as women’s director of basketball operations and video coordinator at Dayton before becoming an assistant coach and associate head coach at Milwaukee, where she spent the previous five years before joining Duffy’s Miami staff in April.
“I had talked to him a lot, through the hiring process at several of my other jobs,” Duffy said of Goldsberry. “It’s fitting that he’s able to come home. That solidified the deal.”
They had talked previously about working together.
“I’m not sure he would have come with me if I’d gone to the West Coast, but he always said, ‘The beach or close to Dayton,’ ” she said.
Duffy is happy Goldsberry can see first-hand how she implements lessons he imparted to her back in their CJ days.
“Coach taught me more than anything else about toughness and playing hard all the time,” she said. “He’s always had a defense and rebounding mindset, and he still does.”
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