Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Campus

Without a doubt, The Carmody Situation will be one of the stickiest challenges facing Jim Phillips.

Bill Carmody, basketball coach for the past eight years, hasn't turned in a winning season since 2001-02 - his second in Evanston - and has led the Wildcats to a dismal 21-40 mark over their past two campaigns. He has shown year-to-year improvement just once, from 11-19 in 2000-01 to 16-13 in 2001-02. His teams have made no NCAA tournaments, no NITs and no Big Ten tournament finals. Toward the end of this past season, fans were booing Carmody's name during coaches' introductions at Welsh-Ryan Arena. To top it off, one of Carmody's old assistants, Craig Robinson, was just named the head coach at Oregon State.

It has been, to say the least, a rough going of late for Northwestern men's basketball. And with Carmody loyalist and fellow Princeton guy Henry Bienen retiring as NU president in 2009, we may well be witnessing the twilight years of the Carmody Era.

To be fair, the Cats started looking much better towards the end of last season, pulling out their first Big Ten win 62-60 at Michigan and playing a close game against Minnesota before falling in the final seconds of their conference tournament matchup. Next year NU returns all five of its starters, and Carmody's players have stood behind their coach, defending him at every mention.

It seems highly unlikely that the Cats will cut ties with the coach so long as he has the university president's support and keeps graduating his players. But if Phillips were to make a big splash in his first few months as Athletic Director, removing Carmody would be it.

- Ben Larrison



The terms "Northwestern football" and "leaving a legacy" have rarely been synonymous.

Ed Tunnicliff ran for the winning touchdown in the 1949 Rose Bowl. His legacy? Champion.

Gary Barnett brought NU out of the depths of 23 straight losing seasons to the 1996 Rose Bowl appearance. His legacy? Miracle worker.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools