Bill Carmody Position: Head Coach

Head coach Bill Carmody, the 2003-04 Big Ten Coach of the Year, returns for his ninth season at the helm at Northwestern in 2008-09.

He 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.

Last season, Carmody became just the second coach in school history to reach the 100-win plateau at Northwestern (Arthur Lonborg--236, 1928-50). The milestone came in the Wildcats' win over Howard on Dec. 20, 2007. He enters the 2008-09 season just five victories shy of 200 overall for his career.

If there were questions about Carmody's coaching ability when he first arrived in Evanston, he has put them to rest. NU's 95 wins during his first seven campaigns marked the best seven-year win total in the program's history. The 2005 senior class graduated with 57 victories, which is more than any other class in the first 102 years of the program. Northwestern won at least 11 games in each of Carmody's first seven seasons, a program first and the first time the 'Cats reached double figures in the win column seven-straight seasons since 1938.

In Big Ten play, Northwestern won 32 regular-season conference games from 2002-07, the most over a six-year period since 1966-71 (35). In Carmody's eight-year tenure, the Wildcats have won 36 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 six of the past seven years, including a record 12 in 2004-05. Northwestern has had a winning mark at Welsh-Ryan in seven of eight years under Carmody, after doing so just twice in the six seasons prior to his arrival.

Carmody's teams are widely recognized for their willingness to share the basketball, while not turning it over. That tradition continued in 2007-08 as the Wildcats finished third in the nation with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.43. The squad also finished second in the Big Ten with an average of 16.4 assists per game. Under Carmody's tutelage, Michael Thompson set a school record for assists by a freshman with 128. The first-year point guard ranked fourth among all the nation's freshmen with a 1.97 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Northwestern has also been known for being proficient from beyond the arc. Never more so was that the case than last season when the Wildcats set a school single-season record with 246 made 3-pointers, including 97 by Craig Moore, the most ever by an NU player.

In 2006-07, Carmody led one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten to 13 victories, set a school record with 11 non-conference wins and recorded double-figures in wins before the start of Big Ten play for the first time in program history. He mentored Kevin Coble to Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors as Coble became the first freshman to lead the Wildcats in both scoring and rebounding in the same season. Also that year, senior Tim Doyle 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 the likes of Magic Johnson, Scott Skiles and Isiah Thomas.

Freshmen have not only been able to contribute in their inaugural season in a Wildcat uniform, many of them have thrived under Carmody's guidance (see page 13). In addition to Thompson's record-setting season, Moore and Coble each earned Big Ten All-Freshman honors in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

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 8-8 in conference play, 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 under Carmody. 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.

That same year Jitim Young was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection--the first under Carmody--while Vedran 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 3-pointers made per game overall (7.07). The team set a school record with 238 steals and drained 205 treys, which is third on the school's all-time list. The Wildcats' 1.32 assist-to-turnover ratio was a school best until the 2007-08 squad topped the mark.

Carmody's impact at Northwestern was immediate. Inheriting a team that had won just five games overall and was 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).

The Wildcats ended the regular season with an 8-5 nonconference record--including wins over a veteran Iona team (69-67) that won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) title and nationally ranked USC (63-61)--and recorded three wins in their final six Big Ten games.

Northwestern set a school record by draining 202 three-point field goals. 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 finished third in the nation in assist-to-field goal ratio at .705 (420 assists on 596 baskets).

At the defensive end, Northwestern's matchup zone--another Carmody twist--continued to be a puzzle that few teams could solve. 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, then 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 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 Princeton finished with a 27-2 record, a Top 10 national ranking and advanced to 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 Johnstown, 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, 17-year-old Michael and 15-year-old Eddie. They live in Wilmette, Ill.

Carmody's Career Record