Northwestern ladies’s basketball coach Joe McKeown, who has received practically 800 video games over 4 a long time spent principally main the Wildcats and George Washington, plans to retire after the 2025-26 season, the college introduced on Monday.
McKeown has a 777-432 file with 17 NCAA Match appearances in 39 years at Northwestern, George Washington and New Mexico State.
McKeown credited ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon, a Northwestern alum and trustee, for convincing him to take the job in 2008.
“Seventeen years in the past on a golf course in Washington, D.C., Wildcat legend Michael Wilbon stated I ought to have a look at Northwestern,” he stated in a press release. “I did, and we by no means appeared again! I’m excited to educate the Wildcats this upcoming 2025-26 season. It has been an honor to be in Evanston for the previous 17 years. We introduced Northwestern its first Large Ten championship in 30 years, went to a number of NCAA Tournaments, and put loads of Wildcats within the WNBA and different professional leagues.”
McKeown is the winningest coach at Northwestern and tops amongst energetic Large Ten ladies’s coaches with a 268-258 mark in 17 seasons. The Wildcats reached the NCAA Match in 2015 and 2021, once they superior for the primary time in 28 years.
Northwestern would have made it throughout the 2019-20 season had the event not been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wildcats set a program file for wins at 26-4 and completed first within the Large Ten at 16-2. However they’ve received 9 video games every of the previous three years, together with a 9-18 mark this season.
McKeown helped former stars Nia Coffey (fifth total in 2017) and Veronica Burton (seventh in 2022) become first-round picks within the WNBA draft.
He established himself as one of many nation’s prime coaches at George Washington from 1989 to 2008. His groups posted a 441-154 file and made the NCAA tourney in 15 of his 19 seasons, with 4 journeys to the Candy 16 and an Elite Eight look in 1997.
McKeown led New Mexico State to a 68-20 mark and two NCAA appearances in three seasons from 1986 to 1989.
