Carmody leaves building, perhaps for last time
by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports
CHICAGO – Bill Carmody could never quite pull off what he came to Northwestern to do. But you wonder … can anyone?
He walked slowly toward the team bus Thursday night, left alone in his thoughts, probably understanding what is about to happen. There was no crowd around, because that is for winning coaches moving on in March, and he is not.
To understand what the mean side of basketball can do to a man, you should have seen Carmody in the late night hallway of United Center.
He had just endured the post-loss press conference, with all the is-your-goose-cooked questions. Inquiries reserved each spring for the coaching condemned. He had politely answered them all in a soft voice, but it had to hurt. After that, there was nothing to do but go home. The season was over.
“I don’t want to say it’s part of the business, but I understand that was going to happen,” he said in the hallway. “Not much you can do about it.”
Northwestern finished 13-19 with the 73-59 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten tournament; a rather ugly affair that began with an 11-0 Hawkeyes lead.
That record is what will be the final push to Carmody, if he is soon to be fired, as so many expect. No one will care that he lost his best player, Drew Crawford, 10 games into the season. And lost his best big man, Jared Swopshire, for the past month. And that only three players on the roster were healthy enough to play in every game.
Few programs could endure that without a damaged record, and certainly not one with Northwestern’s eternally small margin for error.
“I think he’s done a terrific job,” senior guard Alex Marcotullio said, “with the cards that have been dealt.”
No one will care that only two years ago, the Wildcats had back-to-back 20-win seasons. Or that Carmody once had Princeton as the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Think of … [For more on Carmody leaves the building, perhaps for the last time, click here.]
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