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Northwestern fired basketball coach Bill Carmody on Saturday (March 16). His Big Ten Conference colleagues had kind words for him. Understandably so. Carmody, who had led the Wildcats program for 13 seasons, seems a respectable person and coach. He appears to run a clean program and to be a good teacher. You can’t ask for much more than that, can you?
Hey, and the added bonus from his former Big Ten rivals’ perspective is NU would provide generally at least one and more than occasionally two conference victories per season. During his time at NU, Carmody compiled a 192-210 record, including 13-19 this season. He previously was coach at Princeton University where he enjoyed more success — as in reaching the NCAA tournament — in the Ivy League Conference.
“Bill Carmody elevated the Northwestern basketball program during his 13-year tenure,” NU Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Jim Phillips said in a statement. “He did so with class, integrity and always with the best interests of our student-athletes in mind. Northwestern forever will be appreciative to Bill and what he did for our basketball program.”
The trick is for someone to succeed Carmody and be successful in a manner unseen on the Evanston campus. Namely, reach the NCAA tournament. Which the Wildcats have not done, although the NCAA tournament has reached NU’s campus (the first one was played there in 1939 at Patten Gymnasium with Oregon defeating Ohio State).
“Northwestern will forever be appreciative to Bill and his family for what he did for Northwestern basketball, but the time has come for a change,” Phillips said at a Saturday night press conference. “This is not just about one year. The final decision was based upon my belief that we needed a different voice, a new leader, a change in order to ultimately accomplish our goals.”
Northwestern suffers from having an old playing facility. Of course, if it could build a winning program, it would benefit from having an old playing facility. And there likely would be no questions about building a new facility. Facilities do not make programs. Players and coaches do.
The trick is for Phillips to find the person who can find the players to come to Northwestern to reach that next level. And the level beyond that, the one that will have the school comparable to programs such as Stanford’s and Duke’s.
There has been some early campaigning on behalf of Duke associate head coach Chris Collins, a former high school star in suburban Chicago and in college at Duke. Of course, some of that campaigning is from folks who promoted him for the vacancy after last season when Illinois dismissed Bruce Weber. The main similarity between Northwestern and Illinois in basketball would appear to be the state where the schools are located.
Never a college head coach, Collins likely would be as good as the players he can convince to attend the institution known for its academics — and athletically for its successful football program under Pat Fitzgerald’s leadership.
Something says if a coach can run a winning football program at NU, there ought to be a way to enjoy similar success in basketball. After all, there are far fewer players on a basketball squad than on a football team.
Maybe Northwestern — regardless of the coach — won’t attract the one-and-done talents that some other schools might.
And the point is?
Butler has built a program with an occasional NBA talent on its roster but mainly by having a group of players who stick around for more than one or two years. Other schools build winning teams and traditions by finding players who will be together for three or four seasons.
Is it that complicated? Is something like finding a way to be like Duke or Stanford — or Butler or Gonzaga or Valparaiso — too much to ask?
Jim Phillips doesn’t think so.
And neither should anyone else.
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