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Head coach Bill Carmody, the 2003-04 Big Ten Coach of the Year, has been labeled the best offensive coach in college basketball by Sports Illustrated as well as the second-most innovative coach in the nation. And in recent seasons SI's college basketball writers voted him one of the 15 best coaches in the college game -- a list that included only one other Big Ten coach. He has more wins over a seven-year span than any other coach in Northwestern's history and his Division I peers have voted him as one of the five coaches they would most like to see give an offensive clinic. There is no doubt about it -- Carmody is established as one of the stars in the college coaching profession.
"I want my guys at Northwestern to understand how great of an opportunity it is to play college basketball," he said when he was introduced at Northwestern in September 2000, "and that if they work hard every day how much can be accomplished when they approach the game in the right way." If there were questions about Carmody's coaching ability when he first arrived in Evanston, he has put them to rest. During the past seven years the Wildcats have won 95 games, the best seven-year win total in the program's history, and the 2005 senior class graduated with 57 victories, which is more than any other class in the first 102 years of the program. Northwestern has won at least 11 games in all of Carmody's seasons, a program first and the first time the 'Cats have reached double figures in the win column seven straight seasons since 1938. In Big Ten play, Northwestern has won 32 regular-season conference games during the past six years, the most over a six-year period since 1966-71 (35). In Carmody's seven-year tenure, the Wildcats have won 35 Big Ten regular-season games overall. Prior to his arrival, NU had 28 conference victories in the previous 12 seasons. Carmody's teams have made Welsh-Ryan a particularly tough place for teams to visit. The Wildcats have won 10 or more home games five of the past six years, including a record 12 in 2004-05 and 10 once again last season. Northwestern has had a winning mark at Welsh-Ryan every year under Carmody after doing so just twice in the six seasons prior to his arrival. Expectations at Northwestern have been elevated under coach Carmody. Nevermind that the 'Cats -- with only one departing senior on the roster in 2004-05 -- won 15 games, just the ninth time in history it has happened, or that Vedran Vukusic was a consensus third-team All-Big Ten selection. Northwestern also led the nation in assist-to-field goal ratio (.703), defeated six different Big Ten teams during the regular-season, and won a Big Ten Tournament game for the third-straight season (prior to this three-year run, NU won just one game in the first five years of the tournament's existence). Last year Carmody led one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten to 13 victories, set a school record with 11 nonconference wins and recorded double-figures in wins before the start of Big Ten play for the first time in program history. He mentored freshman Kevin Coble to Big Ten All-Freshman honors as the Phoenix native became the first freshman to lead the Wildcats in both scoring and rebounding in the same season. The season had its share of impressive wins as the Wildcats knocked off crosstown rival DePaul, Miami (Fla.) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and handed Utah its worst loss in 18 years with a 77-44 win over the Utes at the San Juan Shootout. Northwestern set a school record in that game by shooting 73.3 percent from 3-point range. After losing nearly 70 percent of its scoring from the previous year, Carmody got the most out of his players in 06-07. Most notably senior Tim Doyle who set the school's single-season record with 157 assists and became the first player in school history to record at least 350 points, 150 assists, 100 rebounds and 50 steals in the same season. He joined a list of only 13 other players in the history of the Big Ten to accomplish that feat -- a list that includes Magic Johnson, Scott Skiles and Isiah Thomas. Overall, the younger and relatively inexperienced 'Cats showed the rest of the league that they can and will be a team to be reckoned with in the years to come. Fifteen games were decided by eight points or less with nine defeats by an average of only five points. In 2005-06, Carmody led NU to 14 wins and guided the Wildcats to a 9-4 start with a 2-0 start in the Big Ten for the first time in 23 years. Carmody mentored Vedran Vukusic, the Big Ten's regular season scoring leader that season, to second-team all-Big Ten honors as Vukusic became the first Wildcat since Evan Eschmeyer to garner all-conference honors three-straight years. Vukusic broke NU's all-time record for career three-pointers (212) and finished fourth on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,581 points. At the same time, Mohamed Hachad was named to the Big Ten's all-defensive team while freshman Craig Moore was named to the all-freshman team -- both firsts in school history.
Following the 2003-04 season, Carmody was voted by a panel of media as the Big Ten Coach of the Year--the first time a Northwestern mentor has been honored in the 32-year history of the award. The recognition was well-deserved. Playing with just one senior on the roster, and picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, the Wildcats ended up going 8-8 in conference play which was the best mark by an NU team since the 1967-68 team went 8-6. Those eight wins came against seven different Big Ten teams, the second time the program had pulled off the feat in Carmody's four years. As a result, the 'Cats tied for fifth place in the conference standings, their highest finish since the 1968-69 team also tied for fifth. Overall, the Wildcats compiled a 14-15 record which left them just shy of postseason eligibility. That same year Jitim Young was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection--the first under Carmody--while Vukusic was a third-team honoree. It marked the first time in school history the program had a first-team player joined on the All-Big Ten teams by an NU teammate. As a team, Northwestern led the Big Ten in steals per conference game (7.81), turnover margin in conference games (+5.12) and also led the conference in three-pointers made per game overall (7.07). The team set a school record with 238 steals and drained 205 treys, which is second on the school's all-time list. The Wildcats' 1.32 assist-to-turnover ratio is also a school best in the time that both statistics have been kept. Carmody's impact at Northwestern was immediate. Inheriting a team that had won just five games overall and went winless in Big Ten play in 1999-2000, Carmody instituted the offensive system that brought so much success to Princeton, where he had spent the previous 18 seasons (including the last four as head coach). As the 2000-01 campaign wore on and the players began to feel more comfortable, the dividends began paying out. The Wildcats ended the regular season with an 8-5 nonconference record--including a wins over a veteran Iona team (69-67) that won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) title and nationally ranked Southern California (63-61)--and recorded three wins in their final six Big Ten games. In the process, Northwestern learned the values Carmody considers essential to good basketball. The Wildcats set a school record by draining 202 three-point field goals. According to Stats, Inc., they finished fourth in the country with an assist-to-field goal ratio of .680 (423 assists on 622 baskets). Northwestern also finished with a 1.04 assist-to-turnover ratio, a significant improvement from 1999-2000 when the ratio was 0.76. The Wildcats also committed 23 fewer turnovers than their opponents, a far cry from 1999-2000 when they committed 83 more. Those numbers continued to climb in 2001-02. The Wildcats' assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.09 (1.15 in Big Ten), the best since 1993-94, and they committed 56 fewer turnovers than their opponents to lead all Big Ten schools with a +1.93 turnover margin (+2.56 in conference play). NU also knocked down 209 three-pointers, setting the school mark for the second year in a row, and according to Stats, Inc., finished third in the nation in assist-to-field goal ratio at .705 (420 assists on 596 baskets). At the other end, Northwestern's matchup zone defense--another Carmody twist--continued to be a puzzle that few teams could figure out. In addition to finishing first in the Big Ten and fifth nationally in scoring defense (59.1 ppg allowed), the Wildcats allowed just three teams to shoot better than 50 percent for a game. Overall, teams shot just 40.9 percent against NU from the field during the season, placing the 'Cats third in the conference standings.
The 2002-03 team, despite its youth and inexperience, showed that the future was promising by following the Carmody dictum. The 'Cats knocked down 199 treys, the fourth-most in school history in a season, and finished fourth in the Big Ten in turnover margin. In addition, NU's assist-to-turnover ratio was again positive, at 1.10 (429 assists, 373 turnovers), and according to Stats. Inc. the Wildcats were third nationally in assist-to-field goal ratio at .684 (398 assists on 582 baskets). Carmody became head coach at Princeton prior to the 1996-97 season, replacing the legendary Pete Carril after spending 14 years learning the system as an assistant. During his four-year tenure as head coach, Carmody guided the Tigers to an overall record of 92-25 (.786) and an Ivy League mark of 50-6 (.893), and took them to the postseason each year. He led the Tigers to a 24-4 record in his first season, the third-best first year mark for a Division I head coach in 30 years. Carmody followed that up with an even better sophomore campaign when he directed Princeton to a 27-2 record, a Top 10 national ranking and the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Carmody's Princeton teams counted opponents from the ACC, Big East, Conference USA, WAC and Mountain West among their victims. The Tigers claimed the 1998 Rainbow Classic title in Hawaii with wins over Florida State, Texas and Charlotte on consecutive nights, and in the 1999 NIT they defeated Georgetown and North Carolina State before falling in the quarterfinal round. Princeton had winning streaks of 20 games and 19 games under Carmody, the two longest streaks in school history, and his teams set 31 school records during his tenure. Carmody was named the United States Basketball Writers' Association District II Coach of the Year and the New Jersey Coach of the Year each of his first two years. Carmody is one of four men to coach a team to a perfect Ivy League record; he is also the only coach to do so in his first year. A native of Spring Lake, N.J., Carmody joined the Princeton staff as an assistant coach in 1982. While he was an assistant under Carril, the Tigers made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament which included their memorable win over defending national champion UCLA in 1996. Carmody graduated from Union College (Schenectady, N.Y.) in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in history. A basketball standout, he led Union to a 59-11 record in three seasons as a starter. During his senior year, he captained the Dutchmen and was named first-team All-ECAC as well as the school's Most Outstanding Athlete. Upon graduation from college, Carmody served as the head coach of Fulton-Montgomery Community College in New York, and led the team to a 17-10 record and conference title in his only season there. He returned to Union the following year as an assistant coach. Carmody and his wife, Barbara, have two sons, 15-year-old Michael and 13-year-old Edward. They live in Wilmette, Ill. Carmody's Career Record
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