25th Anniversary ACC Women's Basketball Tournament Page
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by Debbie Antonelli
ACC Women's Basketball Television Analyst
Kira Orr was one of the best point guards in the history of Duke Women's Basketball. She is currently fifth on the all time scoring charts and ranks in several of the Duke three point shooting categories. Orr is second all-time on the assists charts. But when you speak to Kira Orr, it is much more than numbers for this first recruit in the first recruiting class for Head Coach Gail Goestenkors.
"When I was making my choice for college, I wanted to go somewhere close to home, go to a good school academically in a great conference but I also wanted to go somewhere that was building," claims Orr.
Building was the proper term for the initial stages of the Coach G era. Built is the proper term now.
"As a former player, I am very proud of the titles and the position of the Duke women's program today. I am very happy to see Coach G get everything she had talked about and all the things she said she wanted when she was recruiting me to come to Duke. All of those things are happening for her and for Duke."
Orr says Coach Goestenkors has a vision and said Orr was the most important recruit because she believed in what Goestenkors was selling.
"Kira was the first to really believe it could happen to Duke," says Goestenkors.
Orr believed in what Duke was doing so much so that she helped sell current Duke freshman Monique Currie on the Duke environment. Orr is the Assistant Athletic Director of The Bullis School in Washington, DC, the same school that produced the candidate for ACC Rookie of the Year, Currie. Orr coached Currie as the assistant varsity coach in high school. Orr called her old college coach to tell her Currie would be a welcomed addition to the Duke system. Monique told Orr she really wanted to play at Duke so Orr helped Duke in the recruiting process.
In keeping with the trend of interviewing former players, I asked Orr to share a special tournament memory and without hesitation, Orr recounted the come from behind overtime victory over Virginia in 1995. Duke was down 20 points at the half and came back to take Virginia into overtime and win, 83-82. This was only the third win in program history in the ACC Tournament. Duke beat Clemson the day before in the tournament played in Rock Hill, SC.
This 1995 team is the same team that took Coach G to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, second in the program's history. The Dukies eventually lost to Alabama in the second round, 121-120 in a marathon four overtime contest.
Orr's relationship goes well beyond her playing days with Coach Goestenkors.
"People don't realize how much of a mentor she was to me in helping me to become a good person, not just a basketball player. I always told her she was like a second mom to me and I sincerely mean it."
Orr is still giving back to the game she loved as a player and today as a coach. She coaches soccer, basketball and softball at The Bullis School while teaching third grade and fifth grade physical education.
Orr was a part of the construction of what is today a national powerhouse in women's basketball. Duke had a losing ACC record in her freshman year only to go on to have three consecutive winning seasons in the ACC and go to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Orr's class got the streak of seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances started. Duke also played in the finals of two ACC Tournaments during Orr's leadership. Orr was a part of the building process that propelled Duke to the 1999 NCAA Championship game two years removed from graduation.
Coach G's first recruiting class got it all started for Duke and Orr was a key ingredient as the point guard, as a leader and as someone who believed in the vision and passion of a young head coach.
