While her tenure at Stephen F. Austin included a great deal of success, it also included one of the biggest disappointments of Gunter’s career.

She had served as an assistant coach on the silver medal-winning 1976 U.S. Olympic team and was selected as head coach for the 1980 games in Moscow. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, however, the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics and Gunter missed out on the opportunity to lead the national team.

“It was a tremendous disappointment, but I was more disappointed for the kids than myself. At least I had had the Olympic experience in 1976,” Gunter said.

Eventually, Gunter realized she had accomplished everything she could at Stephen F. Austin. With the NCAA taking over as the governing body for women’s college basketball in the early 1980s, it was time for a new challenge. LSU came calling, and Gunter was soon headed to the Bayou for another 20 years of success.

She took over as coach of the Lady Tigers in 1983 and had immediate success. Her first LSU team went 20-7, and Gunter was selected National Coach of the Year by Basketball News.

LSU won the Women’s NIT under Gunter in 1985, and followed that up with a trip to the NCAA Midwest Regional Final in 1986.

The elusive trip to the Final Four never came though, and after leading the Lady Tigers to their first Southeastern Conference tournament championship in 1991 the program fell on hard times.

LSU was 16-13 in 1992, and had a losing record in each of the next two seasons.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. We had a couple of void recruiting classes. They were great players, but not great people, and we had to bite the bullet for a couple of years,” Gunter said.

Gunter’s 500th career victory came in 1995, a 92-62 win over Jackson State, but the joy of reaching that milestone was tempered by growing rumors that her job was in jeopardy.

“It wasn’t a fear of being fired, it was a fear of not having success,” Gunter said of the stress during those lean years. “(Former LSU athletic director Joe) Dean never came in and gave me an ultimatum, win or you’re fired … Those were not fun times, it was a stressful time.”

A solid recruiting class turned everything around in a hurry. The class, which included future All-SEC players Elaine Powell, Toni Gross, and Pietra Gay, helped the Lady Tigers to a 21-11 record in 1995-96. The 14-game turnaround from the previous season was the biggest in SEC history.

The Lady Tigers advanced to the WNIT and finished third, then reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament the next season. Gunter earned her first SEC Coach of the Year award in 1996-97 as the Lady Tigers finished 25-5.

LSU has been back in the postseason every season since 1995-96, and has advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of the last five years. Along the way, the LSU program has drawn new fans as well as admirers in the basketball world.

For a game this season between LSU and Tennessee, the top two teams in the SEC and two of the top five teams in the country, a sellout crowd of 15,217 packed LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center. It was the largest crowd ever to see a women’s basketball game in the state of Louisiana.

After playing to plenty of crowds over the years that could be counted by hand, it was a sight Gunter said she would never forget.

“Probably when I walked out on that ramp and saw there wasn’t an empty seat in the PMAC, that took my breath away,” Gunter said.

As she prepares the Lady Tigers for their showdown with Louisiana Tech tonight, Gunter is probably hoping she doesn’t lose her luggage either.

After earning the first No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in school history, LSU was placed in the West region. Besides having to run a gauntlet of heavy hitters like Tech and Texas to reach the Final Four, LSU was forced to do plenty of traveling.

The Lady Tigers played their first two tournament games in Oregon, and will play the next round in California under the NCAA’s new system of pre-determined tournament sites. LSU is the only No. 1 seed that didn’t get at least two games in its home state. Despite the hassle of making two cross-country trips within a week, Gunter said it did have its benefits.

“Going out to Oregon wasn’t bad, because at least it was a neutral court,” Gunter said. “It wasn’t as bad as some of the other teams got. Mississippi State got the worst shaft anybody can imagine. You work your tail off all year, get a No. 3 seed, then have to go to a place that’s notorious for having 15,000 or 16,000 people … I have complained a lot about this pre-determined system.”

Gunter’s first appearance in the Final Four or, even better, a national championship may go a long way toward easing her displeasure though.

Even if the Lady Tigers come up short this season, the future looks bright for Gunter and the LSU program. There are only four seniors on the roster, and only one of those is a starter.

As for Gunter, she said she isn’t planning to leave the bench anytime soon.

“I have no idea. I have no timetable for that. Probably when I don’t have the fire anymore,” Gunter said, adding that the LSU program figures to be a contender for the foreseeable future. “The program has never been in better shape than it is now. Ever.”