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Out of the Ivy? Report: Northwestern to hire Princeton's Carmody
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) -- Bill Carmody, who posted a 92-25 record in his four years as head coach at Princeton, will be introduced Wednesday as Northwestern's new basketball coach, The Associated Press has learned. He will replace Kevin O'Neill, who resigned five days ago to take a job as an assistant with the New York Knicks, according to a source close to Carmody, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. Carmody was not available for comment Tuesday. Northwestern athletic director Rick Taylor was out of his office, and a school spokesman would only say that a news conference has been scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday. "Our new men's basketball coach will be there," spokesman Kyle Coughlin said. Carmody inherits a Northwestern program that has had just one winning season in the last six years. The Wildcats were 5-25 last season and didn't win a single Big Ten game. Four players left the program. But Carmody might be uniquely qualified for Northwestern's rebuilding effort. He spent the past 18 years as either the head coach or an assistant at Princeton, a school that doesn't give athletic scholarships and has academic standards as tough as Northwestern's. In spite of that, Carmody took the Tigers to the postseason each year. Princeton made the NCAA tournament after going undefeated in Ivy League play his first two seasons, and advanced to the second round in 1998. The Tigers went to the NIT the past two years. Carmody's best season was 1997-98, when the Tigers went 27-2 and were ranked as high as No. 8 during the regular season. It was the highest ranking for an Ivy League team in nearly 30 years, and the 27 victories set a school record. Before becoming head coach, Carmody spent 14 years as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril. The Tigers were 251-125 (.668) during that time, winning four straight Ivy League titles (1989-92) and seven overall. They also lost four first-round NCAA tournament games by a total of just 15 points using their patient passing game that often led to backdoor layups. The high point of his tenure as an assistant came at the 1996 NCAA tournament. Carril had already announced he would retire after the tournament and Carmody had been named his successor. Facing defending national champion UCLA in the first round, the Tigers upset the Bruins 43-41. It was during his tenure as an assistant that Carmody got to know Henry Bienen, now the president of Northwestern. When Bienen was a dean at Princeton, he and Carmody used to play in lunchtime pickup games. Carmody played at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., graduating in 1975. He coached at Fulton-Montgomery Community College for a year before returning to Union as an assistant coach and junior varsity head coach until 1980. After spending a year as an assistant coach at Providence College, Carmody joined Carril's staff.
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