With his acceptance of the Green Bay Packers team presidency Northwestern Athletic Director Mark Murphy will depart Evanston by January 1. The question in his wake is whether his tacit two-year evaluation window of Bill Carmody will remain in effect.
Will a regime change buy Carmody and his program more time? While an official replacement likely won’t be assigned until spring, it will be interesting to note what kind of quotes emanate from the new athletic director with regards to Carmody and his program.
Whether it is rumored short lister Paul Kowalczyk, Rick Sund, or other reputed candidates, it seems to Hoopraker that Murphy’s two year evaluation window for Carmody is still appropriate and more than fair. Two more years gives him a decade at Northwestern. Even taking into account the magnitude of the challenge, it’s reasonable to expect at least one NIT bid in that duration.
With Kevin Coble’s rumored return for the Big Ten slate and the talent upgrades of his past two recruiting classes, Wildcat faithful should expect an improvement on last year’s 2-14 conference mark. And next season the program should be playing in the postseason. Anything less would be hard to rationalize.
Keep The Griddle Hot
While we have no indication that Murphy’s relationship with Carmody was anything but collegial and productive, it is apparent that he was applying some not unreasonable pressure and heightened expectations for Northwestern basketball. Murphy, like Hoopraker, seemed convinced that Wildcat basketball was capable of greater things and began to make those aspirations explicit and more public.
And to his credit, Carmody seems to have responded positively to the prodding, at least from a recruiting standpoint. Having made only limited inroads both as a recruiter of Big Ten caliber players and of Chicagoland, Carmody’s last two classes and the one upcoming have corrected both problems. Maybe it was just a matter of hiring the right guy for recruiting. Tavaras Hardy continues to add to his sterling reputation around the state as a classy, tireless, and, most importantly, effective salesman for the program.
Another piece of Murphy’s legacy as it relates to Northwestern basketball is the fundraising campaign that recently yielded, among other things, new and expanded locker rooms for Welsh-Ryan arena. Given that Carmody has taken countless opportunities to suggest the previous locker rooms were polarizing to the point of hurting his recruiting, this investment should signify a substantial boon to the program.
The Next In Line
So while Murphy’s toughening stance and concomitant investment in Carmody and the basketball program was beginning to have some positive effects, the question is whether the new athletic director will be able to push the effort further.
If the whispers about Kowalczyk have veracity, it could bode well for Wildcat basketball fans. Kowalczyk, a former associate Athletic Director at Northwestern, would bring an impressive track record with the sport from his recent six year tenure (2000-06) as Southern Illinois AD. He certainly has had firsthand associations with the highest level of collegiate coaching in Bruce Weber and Chris Lowery.
And the Southern Illinois program that he helped develop is one that, besides its lower academic profile, can be used as an aspirational template for Northwestern. It is a program whose success, which includes six straight NCAA tournament appearances, has been a function of a modest annual basketball budget ($1,386,475 last season), superlative coaching, and maximization of non-McDonald’s All-American talent rather than gaudy expenditure (i.e. Duke’s $8,010,066) and top twenty recruiting classes. Also impressive, the program under Kowalczyk achieved this success while maintaining an eighty percent graduation rate.
Among the other mentioned candidates, Sund’s long association with the sport would, on paper, suggest a favorable influence. But as an NBA lifer, Sund’s interest is likely to be limited and his specific experience perhaps less well suited to collegiate athletics. The worst case scenario here is Sund bringing in a coaching staff of failed or fatigued NBA cronies.
What About Shon?
Wildcat favorite son Shon Morris has had a long affiliation with the program as both a legendary former player and associate athletic director for development. There is no question he would be a home run from a basketball standpoint. It remains to be seen whether his administrative experience is deemed hire worthy at this juncture.
And it is also possible Morris is having too much fun as a broadcaster and may not be ready to surrender the microphone. There’s no question he is one of the smartest and most entertaining color analysts the Big Ten has to offer, so Northwestern’s gain would be the airwaves’ loss.
In any case, fans of Northwestern basketball hope the new hire continues the good progress spurred by Murphy and will be there to celebrate the postseason breakthrough that should no longer be considered some kind of naive dream. With the right leadership from the athletic director and continued work from Carmody and his staff, it should be inevitable.
