Northwestern will likely have to start the season without one of its key players from last year.
Forward Kevin Coble, who led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding as a freshman last season, has left the team to be with his mother, Carlys, while she battles breast cancer.
A statement issued by the NU athletic department Monday said Coble’s mother is undergoing chemotherapy in Phoenix, Coble’s hometown.
NU coach Bill Carmody said the sophomore left Evanston in the middle of last week and didn’t come to a concrete decision until Monday morning, though Coble and his family had been discussing it for a while.
The statement said Coble is still enrolled in school and will return to the basketball program “when he feels the time is appropriate.”
“I am looking forward to getting back on the court at the conclusion of my mom’s treatment so that I can have my biggest fan back in the stands,” Coble said in the statement. Coble will remain eligible to return to the team and play this season, the statement said.
The 6-foot-8, 190-pound Coble paced the Cats with 13.4 points per game and 5.2 rebounds per game last season, the first freshman in the history of the program to do so. In 29 games, he led the team in scoring 12 times, rebounding 18 times and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team at the end of the season.
Carmody said he expects Coble to be out “a couple months,” and hasn’t thought about how much of the season Coble will miss.
Coble sent an e-mail to his teammates notifying them that he was contemplating the decision, and the team discussed the possibility of progressing without Coble at Saturday morning’s practice, Carmody said.
“We support everything (the Cobles) do,” Carmody said. “This is a situation that’s different for everyone – how you react, how you respond. He wants to be there to make sure his mother is doing OK.”
Carmody said Coble has arranged with his professors to keep up his course load while in Phoenix, and he expects Coble to continue training while he is away from the team. Carmody also said Coble will be back-and-forth between Evanston and Phoenix, and the coach will maintain regular contact with Coble while he is away.
“It’s a delicate situation,” Carmody said.
The Cats were 13-18 last year, with a 2-14 conference record, and lost to Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. With Tim Doyle, last year’s second-leading scorer and leader in minutes, assists and steals graduated and Coble’s status for the start of the season uncertain, NU’s returning leader in scoring is junior guard Craig Moore, who put up 8.1 points per game last year.
NU opens the season with an exhibition against the University of Chicago on Nov. 7 and opens its regular season against Stanford on Nov. 15. Both games are at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Reach David Morrison at [email protected].
