MINNEAPOLIS—After a high school basketball game in central Wisconsin in 2024, a pair of old friends sat down at the Stevens Point Buffalo Wild Wings and talked about basketball well into the night. Such a scene doesn’t register as something extraordinary until you know the table is occupied by a pair of basketball legends and start counting the achievements between the two.
Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville became teammates for the first time at the University of Minnesota when McCarville arrived on campus as a freshman in 2001. The two helped lead the Golden Gophers to the most successful era in the program’s history, culminating with the school’s lone trip to the Final Four in 2004.
After starting their professional careers in separate WNBA markets, they reunited back in Minnesota with the Lynx, winning a championship together in 2013 and hung a banner in the Target Center rafters less than three miles away from their collegiate exploits.
“She’s such a great person. She’s doing a heck of a job coaching her high school team. I went to watch her when I was on my sabbatical. That’s what I call my time between [coaching] at the U of M and here,” Whalen said with a smile during this year’s Lynx training camp when asked about being reunited with McCarville yet again.
“I went and watched her in Stevens Point,” she added. “We hung out, went to Buffalo Wild Wings after the game and just talked the game. She was so in her skin on the sideline, coaching, coaching them up, [this] is exactly what she should be doing. It’s just really great to see when people have those opportunities because of who they are. I couldn’t be happier for her and for all of us to get to be around her.”
McCarville returned to her alma mater, Stevens Point Area High School, as the girls JV coach in 2022, after transitioning to coaching during her final years as a player with Alvik Basket in Sweden. Continuing her coaching career in her hometown wasn’t a set plan, but once the opportunity presented itself the most natural next step from Stockholm for McCarville was back home in Stevens Point.
“It really just fell into place that there was an opening on the JV side,” McCarville told The IX Sports. “So I took the JV spot thinking, ‘You know I can prep these young kids for what’s needed,’ and then within a year I was promoted to the head job. I loved it. The fact that I’m able to get back to the community, I [get] to walk the halls that I [walked] as a teenager, make jokes, my locker’s still there and everything, it’s just great.”
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In three years in charge of the Panthers, McCarville has posted an increase in wins year-over-year in consecutive seasons (18-8 in 2024; 22-5 in 2025; and 23-5 in 2026). And since Whalen’s visit during her first season on the job, McCarville’s added back-to-back Wisconsin Valley conference titles to her already stacked resume.
“The community really rallied around the [team],” McCarville said. “We have great attendance, great following, and just try to give the girls an opportunity that I don’t think they would all have if I wasn’t there…My mind is different every single day, depending on what’s needed. I rewatch film every single day on what’s needed. Call players out on tendencies, expectations and then challenge them. I enjoy it a lot. I enjoy it more than I thought I would, to be honest.”
“I’m excited because J-Mac was not one of our people that we flagged as definitely going to get into coaching,” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said. “It may have even surprised herself, I don’t know, but she got into it.”
McCarville is one of several players who played for Reeve on the Lynx and now plays their trade in the coaching realm. Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson, of course, are on the staff with McCarville in Minnesota, Sylvia Fowles is an assistant with the expansion Portland Fire, and Seimone Augustus is an assistant at her alma mater, LSU.
None of whom totally expressed an itch to coach during their playing days under Reeve, and definitely not McCarville, who will resume her coaching duties at Stevens Point Area after the WNBA season ends.
“I think she’s got the itch really bad and that’s really fun to be around, because as a player she was pretty much anti-authority of any kind, including her coaches, so it’s really interesting to see her on this side of it,” Reeve said with a laugh. “I think (former Lynx assistant coach) Jim Peterson asked her when he first saw her, ‘What kind of coach are you?’ And she said, ‘The kind of coach I hated.’”
It may not have been the most natural next career step for McCarville the player, but McCarville the coach had too much to give to not keep giving herself to the game.
“Truthfully, I didn’t know, I still don’t know if it’s a natural thing for me,” McCarville said. “I just feel like I’ve got a lot to give and I understand the game, so I feel I have the ability to pass it on to younger players up and coming at the college level, at the high school level, and now with the pros, that’s just kind of how I approached it.”
Now back in Minnesota, McCarville helps bolster a staff rich in championship experience that sets championship-level expectations for rookies and veterans alike.
“Great energy,” Kayla McBride said on media day when asked about her earliest impressions of McCarville. “A quieter demeanor than maybe a Whalen or BB, but I mean, I remember playing against her, watching her play. She’s very Minnesotan, everybody loves her. She’s finding her way and her energy’s been great. I’m excited to get to know her too off the court, like I did with Whay and BB, and all [the coaches]. You can definitely tell they have such a great connection just from their time together, and that’s contagious too.”
Primarily working with Minnesota’s post players, McCarville and Brunson, affectionately known within the team facility at Mayo Clinic Square as ‘BB,’ form a formidable coaching tandem. Providing crucial expertise to a group featuring Nia Coffey and Natasha Howard while awaiting the returns of Napheesa Collier and Dorka Juhász.
“She’s been great. You could tell that she is excited to be back here and be able to lend to the post group as much as she can,” Brunson told The IX Sports. “She has had a lot of success coaching high school in Wisconsin, overseas and I know that she’s learned a lot along the way. It’s fun to have her back here, being part of the Lynx again and just sharing everything that she’s learned since she’s been away as well.”
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“It’s a great opportunity,” Coffey said on media day when asked about their approach to coaching the post group. “I ask them all the questions and I’m always asking for feedback. Just taking advantage of the opportunity because, I mean this coaching staff is legendary. I get to be around them every day, so it’s cool.”
Her bond with Whalen, or ‘Whay,’ dates back 25 years now and has long been part of Minnesota basketball lore. Chapter one featured a historic Final Four run with the Gophers. Chapter two, a WNBA championship playing for the Lynx. Chapter three as coaches for the Lynx is still being written, whether there are more historic wins in store for the longtime friends will unfold in due time, but one thing’s for sure, they couldn’t be happier to be on the same team once again.
“I love her,” Whalen said. “She’s like a sister so it’s definitely a lot of fun to get back to work with her. It’s like we’re back playing again almost, just in different roles. It’s just like having another family member be a part of the group.”
“It’s easy because as players we’ve been together since we were teenagers,” McCarville said. “I think she would have been 19, I was 18 coming in as a freshman. Just having the understanding and camaraderie to be able to bounce things off each other, ask for feedback, ask for help…We played the game at the highest level for the longest time, so now to combine that as coaches and give back to players, it’s rewarding and super fun to do that with BB and Whay, and Cheryl.”
The feeling is mutual with the head coach.
“It brings me joy when players dive into this profession and just love it,” Reeve said. “It brings me great joy and we’re happy to have J-Mac back.”
