ORONO – The first applicant to be interviewed for the University of Maine women’s basketball head coaching position, made vacant after Joanne Palombo-McCallie accepted the Michigan State University job last month, already has name recognition.

Meet Joanne P. Boyle, a seven-year assistant coach for the Duke University women’s program who had never been to Maine before Wednesday. She is one of 12 top candidates selected from 34 applicants.

The “P” doesn’t stand for Palombo, but if she’s hired, Maine’s veteran players won’t have to learn a new first name.

Just before meeting those players, Boyle met with members of the media. The short press conference confirmed one thing: Boyle isn’t prone to hyperbole.

“What you see is what you get,” Boyle told the group of reporters assembled in Palmer Lounge.

Although Boyle was the first to go through a personal interview and press conference process, UMaine athletic director Sue Tyler said that doesn’t automatically make her the top candidate.

“She’s the measuring stick for us right now. She had the best cross-section of all the different qualities we’re looking for,” Tyler said. “Now we’ll get a lot of feedback and be evaluating her, and then we’ll be having another meeting.”

Those qualities are commitment to academics, commitment to compliance, quality of coaching, recruitment, experience, knowledge, community involvement.

Tyler and other UM officials were coy about whether Boyle might be the only candidate interviewed as no others have been invited for interviews yet.

“That would be extraordinary, but certainly not impossible,” said Tyler, who has been keeping tabs on Boyle for 3 1/2 years.

“She would have applied anyway, but I did recruit her, and others,” Tyler admitted.

Boyle, 36, played for the Blue Devils and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Duke before going on to receive a master’s degree in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina (1989). She also played and coached professionally in Luxembourg and Germany from 1990 through 1993.

Duke is coming off an Atlantic Coast Conference championship and Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season and an NCAA Final Four appearance two years ago.

Asked about the challenge of going from a high-profile confe Asked about the challenge of going from a high-profile conference and team to a smaller school like Maine, Boyle said that wasn’t a big concern for her.

“My goals aren’t based on projections of how we’re going to finish. What I really want to do is maximize the potential of each and every player that comes into this program and maximize the potential of the team itself,” she explained. “I’m going to ask a lot of them and I want them to ame.”

Recruiting ability is seen as one of Boyle’s strengths. Duke’s recruiting classes have been ranked fourth and third nationally the last two years.

“Maine’s been successful with Maine players and it’s important to recruit the best Maine players each year. On top of that, I think you can broaden your base a lot,” she explained. “There’s a huge level of second tier talent in the Philly, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio area. Canada every now and then has good kids in it… I don’t want to limit myself to a region because if there’s an awesome player in Michigan and they want to play in front of 5,000 people and they can’t do it in Michigan, why can’t they do it in Maine?”

Tyler said Boyle has been offered two “nice” head coaching jobs in the last 13 months, but turned both down. She declined to identify the schools.