Lindsay Whalen's Gophers' contract drives salary over $500,000 after third season

Lindsay Whalen, the Gophers' new head women's basketball coach, will be paid slightly less than her predecssor, Marlene Stollings.

The five-year contract begins with a base salary of $400,000. Stollings made $500,000 before taking a pay raise in her new post at Texas Tech.

Whalen's salary increases after each year with the program -- $457,500 in Year 2; $496,500 in Year 3; $521,325 in Year 4; and $547,391 in Year 5.

Whalen is currently under contract with the Minnesota Lynx. She'll continue to play for the Lynx this summer before the start of the Gophers' season in the fall. The terms of her Lynx contract are undisclosed.

The Gophers paid their former women's basketball coach $500,000 last season. She'll make $700,000 next season ($900,000 with her bonus), and her salary will increase $20,000 in each of the five seasons of her agreement. A sixth season in the agreement is contingent on the Lady Raiders making the NCAA tournament twice in her first five years.

Whalen carried the Gophers to the 2004 Final Four before going on to win four WNBA championships with the Lynx. Her No. 13 Gophers jersey is retired.

"Becoming a head caoch here at the U and being a Gopher again is a dream come true," Whalen said in a statement released Thursday. "At every level, basketball has given me so much."