The Final Four is finally upon us – the final days of one of the best months in college athletics.
It’s that time of year when brackets get busted, male athletes cry in Cinderella fashion and an undisputed (take that BCS) college basketball champion is crowned.
As I watch the basketball powerhouses of Florida, Ohio State, Georgetown and UCLA compete for the Sears Home Depot Busch Light Martha Stewart Home Living Trophy this weekend, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if Northwestern had a Final Four team.
I start dreaming of packed games at Welsh-Ryan Arena where our student section can actually be heard over the opposing team’s fans.
I start dreaming of anxiously watching the NCAA Selection Show with the excitement that my team’s name will be put on the big screen.
I start dreaming of skipping classes to travel to the Wildcats’ games.
But then I remember that I can’t even dream these dreams. There has to be some substance of truth to launch my wild ambitions.
And with Bill Carmody at the helm of our Cats, I will never even be able to dream of having a “good” basketball team here. I’d celebrate a mediocre team, but Carmody can’t even pull that off.
In seven years, Carmody has amassed a 95-113 overall record with an impressive 35-77 Big Ten showing. But those numbers don’t hurt, it’s the fact that Carmody’s tenure makes him the most successful NU basketball coach since Arthur Lonborg roamed the hard-court from 1928-1950.
NU won just two conference games this season, but that looks pretty good when compared with Carmody’s predecessor, Kevin O’Neill, who went 0-16 in the Big Ten before departing for the New York Knicks.
So I guess Carmody isn’t that bad. I mean NU did notch victories over basketball powerhouses Brown, North Florida, Western Michigan, Wheaton College and Northwestern State.
At least Northwestern State has tasted March Madness.
NU has never been to the Big Dance and in Carmody’s seven years leading the Cats, they have not even qualified for the NIT.
How many basketball fans at this school would love to see the Cats in the NIT?
I know I would. And that is just plain sad.
I remember attending a game at Welsh-Ryan two seasons ago when the visiting team’s fan began chanting “N-I-T” as an insult, yet our student section took it as a compliment and began the same chant.
How pathetic is that? It is as if we expect the Cats to fail in some sick comedic way. (Think about the Three Stooges-like pass from Jeremy Nash to Craig Moore in this year’s Big Ten tournament.)
But that attitude has to go.
It is due time for a coaching change and luckily for NU fans everywhere, Weinberg ’03 alumni Seth Reznik and Kevin Silverman have taken action by creating knighttocats.com, an online petition to Athletic Director Mark Murphy calling for the firing of Carmody and the hiring of legendary coach Bobby Knight.
While Reznik and Silverman admit luring Knight is a bit unrealistic, there is no reason why we can’t find a better coach than Carmody. There are even rumors that Princeton wants Carmody back, so just let him leave already.
It is not too late for NU to start wooing West Virginia’s John Bielein, Xavier’s Sean Miller, Southern Illinois’ Chris Lowery or my favorite, Duke assistant and Northbrook, Ill., native Chris Collins.
And there is no reason a new coach could not succeed with NU’s young talent.
Freshman Kevin Coble, who led the team with 13.4 points per game, has shown a lot of promise, while freshman Jeff Ryan and sophomore Sterling Williams could do a lot of damage if they weren’t playing in Carmody’s restrictive Princeton offense.
Carmody has had plenty of chances and he just couldn’t get the job done. It is time for NU to try something new or it will continue drowning in mediocrity.