Congrats to Coach Carmody on his NCAA tourney win tonight.
- Thread starter TwinDegrees2
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So what is it about Northwestern? They had decent coaches in Bill Foster and Carmody, but never made it to the Big Dance.
I'd say it's a combination of at least a couple things: 1) Reputation as an academics-focused school not being appealing to many recruits, 2) Inertia in the form of failing to make it into the NCAA for so long that recruits just see that as how it is and always will be.
If Northwestern were in a less competitive conference, I think they would be going to the tourney sometimes, perhaps regularly. Look at the Ivy League - at least one of those schools makes it every year. As it is, Northwestern just can't break into the upper half of the B1G.
It would take a really good recruiter / name coach IMO to counteract the current recruiting disadvantages Northwestern faces enough for them to get into the dance. Coaches like that are in high demand & can find better gigs that Northwestern.
The conference is huge. THAT said a few years ago at a brother-in-law's funeral I spoke with Jody Finney who played at Ohio State in the late 60's and typically was assigned to guard Mount. We talked about recruiting and Randy Ayers coaching at the time (92?). Jody asked me if Purdue was still hard to get in. He said that Northwestern and Purdue were always known as schools that had a hard time hiding a player in coursework. Springfield , Ohio was home to all of them...
So I think the conference is huge and coursework is at play as well...
Ummm, not to take anything away from them....but Holy Cross still is well below .500. They managed to squeak out a win against another horrible team.
Not sure any of this is reflective of Northwestern.
I agree that last night doesn't reflect on Northwestern. They're two very different stiuations. Holy Cross got hot at the right time of the year, and that's a credit to them.
If anything, I think, it shows that Bill Carmondy is a good enough coach to find success s at schools that aren't such a monumental uphill climb as Northwestern.
I'm no Northwestern insider, but I get the sense that the university just wasn't committed to winning when Bill Foster was there. He arrived about a decade before the football renaissance that only later spilled over into taking basketball more seriously.
If anything, I think, it shows that Bill Carmondy is a good enough coach to find success s at schools that aren't such a monumental uphill climb as Northwestern.
I'm no Northwestern insider, but I get the sense that the university just wasn't committed to winning when Bill Foster was there. He arrived about a decade before the football renaissance that only later spilled over into taking basketball more seriously.
Holy Cross was winless on the road prior to their conference tournament. Won 4 straight games on the road to win the tournament. Got hot at the right time.
Agreed that the team they beat last night was not a good team, but I'm happy for Bill. Always thought he was a good guy while at NW.
Agreed that the team they beat last night was not a good team, but I'm happy for Bill. Always thought he was a good guy while at NW.
The football uptick happened after NW lowered their entry standard for athletes. Under the old SAT their minimum was 1200. They lowered it to 1000 I think and expanded their pool of athletes available by a considerable number.
prior to the field expanding to 64 teams only 1 team from each Conference went to the Dance. There would be a handful of at large teams, so sometimes you would see 2 teams from a conference. In 1979 as an example Purdue tied MSU and Iowa for the B1G championship, but did not go to the dance. In other words prior to 1985 it would have been very hard for NW to go.
Since then they have had some bad luck like when Coble opted to quit before his senior year a few years back or Law's injury this year.
Also it is difficult for them to schedule good non-conference opponents due to their history. They are not going up against Duke on the Challenge any time soon as an example. They can win 21 games, but have a bad RPI, etc.
Since then they have had some bad luck like when Coble opted to quit before his senior year a few years back or Law's injury this year.
Also it is difficult for them to schedule good non-conference opponents due to their history. They are not going up against Duke on the Challenge any time soon as an example. They can win 21 games, but have a bad RPI, etc.
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