Kentucky reveals contract terms for new UK women’s hoops assistant Gail Goestenkors
New Kentucky women’s basketball assistant coach Gail Goestenkors will be the highest-paid aide on Kyra Elzy’s UK coaching staff.
The former head coach at both Duke and Texas, Goestenkors has signed a two-year contract with Kentucky that will run through the 2022-23 season.
Goestenkors, who led Duke to four Final Four trips and coached Texas to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances, will be paid a base salary of $250,000 for the 2021-22 season.
The following year, the salary for Goestenkors will increase to $275,000.
Goestenkors’ assistant coaching contract with UK went into effect May 7. The University of Kentucky posted the full contract on the Internet on Wednesday.
In addition to her base pay, Goestenkors is eligible for incentive bonuses if Kentucky reaches the NCAA Tournament round of eight ($20,000), Final Four ($30,000) or wins the national championship ($40,000).
(Those bonuses are not cumulative, meaning only the top one earned would be paid in any given year).
If Goestenkors leaves Kentucky for another job during the duration of her contract, she would owe UK a prorated buyout of $100,000 per year(s) remaining on her pact.
From 1992 through 2007, Goestenkors built Duke into an elite program. She led the Blue Devils to the NCAA Tournament the final 13 years of her tenure, including Final Four trips in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006.
In both 1999 and 2006, the Blue Devils finished as the national runner-up, losing to Purdue in the 1999 NCAA championship game and to Maryland in 2006.
After the 2006-07 season, Goestenkors (396-99 as Duke head coach) shocked the women’s hoops world by leaving the Blue Devils to become head coach at Texas.
In Austin, Goestenkors led the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament in each of her five seasons as head coach but never reached the round of 16. Goestenkors stepped down as Texas coach after the 2011-12 season having gone 102-64.
Since she left Texas, Goestenkors has worked as a WNBA assistant with the Los Angeles Sparks and the Indiana Fever and as a consultant and women’s hoops television analyst.
Goestenkors returned to women’s college basketball coaching this past season by serving as an assistant at Central Michigan.
In 2015, she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
With those credentials, it is hardly surprising that Goestenkors will be the highest-paid assistant on the Kentucky coaching staff.
Niya Butts, the former Arizona head coach, earns a base salary of $225,000. Former UK point guard Amber Smith is paid $150,000 a year.
After the unexpected departure of Matthew Mitchell as UK head coach shortly before the 2020-21 season began, Elzy was elevated from an assistant’s role to, first, interim head coach and then full-time Kentucky coach.
She signed an incentive-laden contract that runs through the 2025-26 season that will pay her $575,000 annually ($400,000 base salary, $175,000 for media and endorsement responsibilities).
For Elzy, bonus pay kicks in if Kentucky reaches the NCAA Tournament round of 16 ($75,000), round of eight ($150,000), Final Four ($250,000) or wins the national championship ($500,000).
(As with Goestenkors, the bonuses are not cumulative, meaning only the top one earned is paid).
A Southeastern Conference regular-season championship would earn Elzy $75,000, while winning the league tournament would pay the Kentucky head coach a $50,000 bonus.
By contract, UK also provides Elzy with the use of one “late-model” automobile and a membership at the Keene Trace Golf Club.
Kentucky went 18-9 overall, 9-6 in the SEC, in Elzy’s first season as Wildcats head coach in 2020-21. A No. 4 seed, UK was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by No. 5 seed Iowa in the round of 32.
