Northwestern University Athletics
McKeown Talks Hoops
10/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 20, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- First-year head coach Joe McKeown spoke to the media for the first time in the 2008-09 campaign Monday afternoon. The following is a transcription of the press conference.
Opening Statement...
"I want to thank everybody for coming out today. I want to let you know how excited I am to be the women's basketball coach now at Northwestern. It's been a big change; it's kind of like getting a mulligan on the first tee--at my age to be a head coach after twenty years at one university--at George Washington--and coming off a great program with great student-athletes, to take over a program that has struggled a little bit but does have a lot of success in the past. So my biggest challenge and my biggest goal is to try to revive Northwestern and bring it back to where it was in the '90s, when Don Perrelli had great teams, and not only that, he had great respect throughout the country.
It was fun for me at homecoming this weekend, to talk to a lot of those players. They loved their experience as a student-athlete here. Hopefully we can not only bring that back, but also move forward.
It was very hard for me to leave a world-class university like George Washington. But one of the few places I would have come, would have been somewhere like a Northwestern, which I think has the same ideals and goals and gives us the opportunity to recruit the same caliber of student-athlete and still try to compete at the national level and in the Big Ten. It's really an exciting time for my staff and me, and we're just trying to get ready to start practice. College basketball has changed so much. You have games early. It seems like the first day of practice, you wake up and you've got a game the next week. So you've got to get things in quickly. And we're moving rapidly as I speak. It'll be a lot of fun; we've got a great response from our players so far."
On whether the challenge of rebuilding a program was a motivating factor for coming to Northwestern...
"It was. And fortunately for me, there were some pieces in place. To have a freshman like Amy Jaeschke, who gives you a foundation you can build around, who was a high school All-American. One of the things we've been trying to do in building and rebuilding is saying, "look, here's somebody who could have gone to any college in America, and she chose Northwestern." So, I think that's helped us accelerate our recruiting a little bit. But I think another challenge, too, is being in the Big Ten. Can Northwestern women's basketball make strides to compete at the top of the league? I've only been here a short period of time, but look at what Coach Fitz has done and what we've done in our women's sports. To me there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do something like that--although lacrosse set the bar a little high. I'm not sure I want to take on that one."
On what it was like during the glory days of Northwestern women's basketball...
"You know, I couldn't tell you. I wasn't here. Ironically, the last team that Northwestern had in the NCAA tournament in `97, I beat, when I was at George Washington. It's kind of a strange irony there. But I think the Big Ten exploded; I think Northwestern, when Don retired, they had a couple of different coaching changes, and I think recruiting fell behind. And in college basketball, everything we do revolves around recruiting, and I think that's probably where it fell off the most, I would guess. And really, again, the league has been stepping up--there are some really great teams--I think there are six teams in the Big Ten that have been to the Final Four in women's basketball. So I think those schools have made tremendous commitments and we fell a little behind. But I can't really give you a great answer to that."
On whether there is hope for Northwestern to get better...
"I wouldn't be here if there wasn't. I had a great job. I had one of the top programs in the country. But I do think the commitment is here, and I felt that not just from Jim Phillips, but also from the rest of the administration when I interviewed and in talking to other coaches that are here at Northwestern. I felt that everybody was on the upswing here and everybody was excited about it. And I really believe that the people are behind us here. It's just going to take a little time."
On the health of the team...
"That's a good question. I think the team last year was riddled with injuries, and I think it really hurt them obviously. Beth Marshall, who's a great leader in this program, unfortunately is not going to play because she had surgery, so she'll be out for the year. Everybody else though, I feel like, over the next five to six weeks--maybe once we get through the Christmas holidays--will be ready to contribute. But in between, there's going to be some days when we'll have seven or eight people practicing. But we'll get there."
On the pressure on Jenny Eckhart without Beth Marshall (injured) and Nadia Bibbs (graduated)...
"We pick her up in a limo everyday; make sure she gets to practice on time. She's got the coach's suite in the hotel and everything. She doesn't have to lift a finger, just play point guard for forty minutes a game. No, she's a tough kid. I really think she's going to have a great year. We've been challenging her everyday. And we didn't pick her up in a limo. That's illegal, just so we're on the same page. She's going to have a great year; she has to for us to be successful."
On the mentality of the team after a history of losing...
"That's a great question. I tell you, when you're so used to coaching a winning team--we had nineteen straight winning seasons at GW, and I'm coming off of the Sweet Sixteen last year and we were ranked tenth in the country--you know, I literally had a tremendous feel for my team. And coaches understand that feeling, when you walk into the gym and you sense what they need that minute; that day. And I think sometimes you coach that way because you have a great feel for your team. You recruited everybody and you've coached them through hard times. Now, I'm still trying to feel what they need, other than the normal basketball fundamentals and those coaching things. I think as a group, they really just want somebody to have a little confidence in them. Their confidence got shattered, I think, more than anything else. So, the natural instinct for me would be to be very positive and upbeat. But when you're a college basketball coach and somebody throws the ball into the stands. You get mad. I think that comes out a little bit too. But I think they just want somebody to have confidence in them, and I have a great staff, my staff has been very positive, but very firm and they know that this is what we have to do to compete. And that's been our goal everyday in practice. There's going to be days, I told them, when you're going to think I'm the worst person you've ever met, but as long as you respect what we're doing and know that we're trying to make you better, I think we're on the same page. I hope I answered that...it's really a confidence issue as much as anything else."
On the goals for this season...
"I've set a lot of goals, but I'm not sharing any of them right now. My first one was just to get through today and then to get through tomorrow without getting hurt. But I think more than anything else, just to build the foundation with our coaching staff and with our players and make sure there's tremendous communication. I know that's a little bit vague and it sounds like a cliché, but when you take over a program that's last, you've got to build blocks slowly. You know, we would love to jump over people in the big ten and accelerate, that's our goal, but we also realize that we have to put the foundation in for the future. I'm going to coach here, hopefully a long time, so I didn't come in here to try to win a couple games and try to build a reputation as my first head coaching job and move on. I'm way past that point."
On the three true freshmen on the team...
"We have two freshmen that are twins - the Mocchi twins, and they're interesting characters. They're from Buffalo Grove, Illinois right down the street. Maggie Mocchi was first team all-state, probably one of the best players in the state of Illinois and she has really adjusted well. Her sister Ali has been a little bit injured and hasn't a chance to show as much. And then the third freshman is Brittany Orban. I'm glad Coach Fitz is not at practice because I promise he would steal her and make her a running back or a linebacker. She just wants to hit somebody. I'm excited about her. She's a tough kid; hard-nosed. I think they're all doing well. They're all lost like all freshmen are at times, but they're competitive. And the one thing I like about Brittany and the Mocchi's is that they hate to lose. They come from winning programs. And they don't care that there are juniors and seniors who have been here. They're like, `Hey, I'm here now, so let's go compete.' So I think they're all going to help us maybe sooner rather than later, it's hard to tell right now."
On Meshia Reed...
"Well, purposefully, I did not watch one possession of film from last year. We're moving offices soon, so I threw everything out, or maybe some of our coaches stole some of the video, but I'm not going to watch it. I think in trying to be fair to everybody here, and being fair to myself by not having any preconceived notions coming in. I just said, `Hey, first day of practice show me what you have. I don't care what you did last year." Meshia Reed, though, has been really impressive so far, other than the fact that she's having trouble guarding anything that moves, but we're going to try to change that. That's a big challenge for her, but we'll get there with her. But offensively, she's really explosive. I really think she's going to have some big nights again and hopefully she's going to be consistent on both ends of the floor. There's an old saying in basketball: `Don't let your offense become your defense.' When players miss shots, they get down at the other end and they let up, and I think she has a little bit of that in her. That's a big thing in our game. Players get their confidence down, but I want her to do it on both ends of the floor. That's the challenge we put out to her. She's talented though, I tell you what, I know the Big Ten has a lot of great players, but offensively, she can probably score with most players in the league. And coming off the NCAA tournament, seeing what teams are out there, I think I got a pretty good feel with the talent level in the country, and I really think she can compete with most people."
On overcoming obstacles in recruiting from the lack of prestige in the program...
"That's a great question. I think the biggest thing that we have right now is that we have a great, world-class university, to sell Northwestern, to sell the campus and the academic integrity that is part of Northwestern. I think that's been the biggest thing. My staff has done a great job of selling Northwestern and getting some of the top student-athletes on campus. I think with football doing well, with all the sports that are here, it helps us. The one thing we haven't done is won. I've won, but I haven't won here, so that's been brought up by some of my competitors in recruiting. It's a cut-throat business. I think that once we can put both pieces together, players in women's basketball will look at us as an opportunity to come here and they won't have to go to Stanford or Duke and schools like that, especially if you're a Midwest student-athlete with a great academic record. This should be a great option for you. That's my recruiting pitch anyway. But we've gotten great response. I feel that everything is right here and I don't know why you wouldn't want to come to school here. And again, for me to give up what I had, I really believe that too. But it's tough; recruiting is tough anywhere, any sport, anytime, because it's a different generation and a different kind of recruit also."
