DURHAM, N.C. – Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie has not only kept the school’s women’s basketball team among the nation’s elite, she’s made the program her own.

Four years after Gail Goestenkors left for Texas, McCallie and the Blue Devils are thriving.

“We’re trying to make history and do special things here at Duke, so we feel a long way off, meaning we’ve never won a national championship and there’s been some opportunity,” said McCallie, who coached at the University of Maine. “We’re in Year 4 and there’s so much to do.”

McCallie’s Blue Devils (29-3) have reached the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship game for four straight seasons and won a second straight title last weekend. Now the sixth-ranked Blue Devils expect a high seed as they head back to the NCAA tournament, where they came within a few minutes of beating Baylor to reach last year’s Final Four.

“From a success standpoint, I don’t see a drop-off,” said senior Jasmine Thomas, a Goestenkors recruit who was a freshman in McCallie’s first season. “But it’s definitely different teams, different sorts of talent and different styles.

“Things have definitely changed but that’s just how things happen. Your ability to be successful while undergoing change is a great accomplishment.”

Goestenkors’ departure for Texas in 2007 came after her run of five straight ACC tournament titles, four Final Fours and two appearances in the national championship game.

She replaced retired Hall of Famer Jody Conradt and arrived at Texas with much fanfare and a seven-year contract for $1 million a year. The expectation was she would quickly rebuild the program into a power like Duke.

Instead the Longhorns have finished no better than fourth in the Big 12 and have one NCAA tournament win in three trips.

“Obviously, we are not where we want to be,” Goestenkors said. But “we’re closer than it looks.”

Her departure opened the door for McCallie to return to the campus she once visited as a high school recruit. She had led Michigan State to the NCAA championship game in 2005 and was The Associated Press national coach of the year that season, but she was eager for a new challenge, too.

“I know this sounds naive and maybe I’m stupid for it, but that’s all I saw, that they’d never won,” McCallie said of Duke. “And I’d love to try. I don’t mean coming to guarantee it. I just thought that would be the coolest thing. How many programs are there that are top-line that have never won it?”

McCallie inherited a strong program with a talented incoming class of Thomas, Krystal Thomas and Karima Christmas as the core of the transition. But it was a bumpy first two seasons.

The Blue Devils look far more settled now, winning at least 25 games each year under McCallie. And her staff has put together classes ranked No. 1 nationally by at least one recruiting service the past two seasons, setting up the Blue Devils to keep rolling along.

“You know what? We’re going to pursue history,” McCallie said. “If we ever do it, it will be for all the kids anybody who was part of those chases.”