Joe announces his retirement at the end of 25-26

[EagerFan]

Joe McKeown Announces Retirement as Northwestern’s Women’s Basketball Head Coach at Conclusion of 2025-26 Season - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern Women's Basketball head coach Joe McKeown , the longest-tenured and winningest head Women's Basketball coach in Northwestern history, has announ...

nusports.com

Seems like he should have made this announcement last year.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Joe McKeown Announces Retirement as Northwestern’s Women’s Basketball Head Coach at Conclusion of 2025-26 Season - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern Women's Basketball head coach Joe McKeown , the longest-tenured and winningest head Women's Basketball coach in Northwestern history, has announ...

nusports.com

Seems like he should have made this announcement last year.

Thank you Joe for all of hard work at NU. However, how does this farewell tour make sense for NU? Is there a pending announcement of a Coach in waiting joining the staff? Is NU preparing or expecting to hire a Coach next season can can bring a good portion of a roster with him/her?

 

[WildScott54]

Thank you Joe for all of hard work at NU. However, how does this farewell tour make sense for NU? Is there a pending announcement of a Coach in waiting joining the staff? Is NU preparing or expecting to hire a Coach next season can can bring a good portion of a roster with him/her?

This is a mistake. He should have resigned now. Who can he recruit for next year? A bad look for our new AD. He’s allowing the program to languish for another year.

 

[Skunkpilot]

They will suck for another season. Yes someone did a Derrick gragg on this one.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

This is... nonsense. SO now you're stuck with him AND you've made an open admission not to bother being recruited by him for another year?

Non revenue sport, so I guess it's a big fat whatever.

 

[its_the_sauce]

Let's see, in 17 years at NU he finished above .500 in conference play exactly 3 times. That's really sad when you think about it. Anyone expecting over ,500 next year?

BTW, Don Perrelli finished with 22 more big ten wins in 2 fewer seasons for NU.

 

[mekCat]

40 years of coaching is a milestone. Congratulations Coach McKeown!!

 

[GatoLouco]

Does this mean the next coach is already within the ranks?

 

[WildScott54]

Does this mean the next coach is already within the ranks?

No. First, if elevating an assistant, you would say that for recruiting. Second, this staff has not performed so why do that?

 

[GatoLouco]

No. First, if elevating an assistant, you would say that for recruiting. Second, this staff has not performed so why do that?

No clue, but a victory lap kind of year seems weird if the sucessor is not already decided.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

No. First, if elevating an assistant, you would say that for recruiting. Second, this staff has not performed so why do that?

The few times I saw this team it was either very overmatched athletically or extraordinary unprepared. Maybe both. So this farewell tour makes no sense for anyone including Joe. If I was a player, I would get out of dodge now rather to suffer another putrid year and be subject to a new Coach coming in with his/her own ideas.

 

[hdhntr1]

This is a mistake. He should have resigned now. Who can he recruit for next year? A bad look for our new AD. He’s allowing the program to languish for another year.

So on the big issues so far is Jackson 1-1? Having entered into negotiations with Collins for extension with added admissions flexibility and enhanced NIL being a win while this move on McKown being a loss so far? If he was at the end of his contract this year, his recruiting has already suffered for one or more years (being in last year of contract) and now going to add another. I would sure hope that there is more to this plan than just giving him a farewell tour

 

[EagerFan]

The few times I saw this team it was either very overmatched athletically or extraordinary unprepared. Maybe both. So this farewell tour makes no sense for anyone including Joe. If I was a player, I would get out of dodge now rather to suffer another putrid year and be subject to a new Coach coming in with his/her own ideas.

Extraordinarily unprepared matches my experiences of the last two years of games I've attended. The cats have had some strong and talented athletes imho, but have pretty much lacked any meaningful offensive/defensive team strategy or coaching ability to adjust to the game in play.

The best I've seen out of them this year was in the last two or three home games when they shifted to an offensive strategy of having Lau and Daley run full court sprints for layups and short jumpers, and defensively run a full court press that tended to crush the other team for the two or three minutes they ran it.

 

[CatFanEd]

Joe McKeown Announces Retirement as Northwestern’s Women’s Basketball Head Coach at Conclusion of 2025-26 Season - Northwestern Athletics

Northwestern Women's Basketball head coach Joe McKeown , the longest-tenured and winningest head Women's Basketball coach in Northwestern history, has announ...

nusports.com

Seems like he should have made this announcement last year.

This makes absolutely no sense unless NU has no confidence in the future of women's basketball. Who is going to watch and who is going to want to commit to NU next year? They should give him a golden parachute and wish him happy retirement. He had a solid career but finishing last in the BIG is pretty bad. How could they possibly think next year would see improvement?

 

[EagerFan]

If all the players, who didn't run out of eligibility, return to the team, I like their potential. I'm hopeful that the players are currently more informed than we are, so what they do with the portal will speak volumes to me about their confidence and understanding of what the next season portends. I'd like to think Joe and the AD have a plan and a future head coach they've failed to announce in a way reassuring to the fans.

But if the talent all hits the portal, yuck.

 

[hdhntr1]

Let's see, in 17 years at NU he finished above .500 in conference play exactly 3 times. That's really sad when you think about it. Anyone expecting over ,500 next year?

BTW, Don Perrelli finished with 22 more big ten wins in 2 fewer seasons for NU.

Probably fewer games per year as well

 

[Catreporter]

Perrelli did a great job but women's basketball is much more competitive now than it was back then. Joe took the team from the depths to win a BIg Ten regular season title in 2020, but then the season shut down for Covid. He had a couple of NCAA and WNIT appearances but things have really fallen off the last couple years. Did he deserve to call his own shot? I don't know....