Northwestern women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown will retire after the 2025-26 season, the team announced Monday.
Following what will be 18 seasons at the helm, McKeown will retire as the winningest coach in Wildcats’ history, ending a tenure that saw both program-defining highs and recent struggles.
“Seventeen years ago on a golf course in Washington, D.C., Wildcat legend Michael Wilbon said I should look at Northwestern,” McKeown said in a news release. “I did, and we never looked back.”
When he arrived in Evanston in 2008 after a dominant 19-year stint at George Washington, NU was a dormant program in desperate need of a revival.
Despite some initial growing pains — including an 8-23 finish during his first season — McKeown quickly sent the team on an upward trajectory. The following year, it notched an NIT bid and the school’s best finish since 1998.
Amid a national expansion of the sport that McKeown frequently touts as a “women’s basketball renaissance,” NU boasted 10 winning seasons and made multiple postseason appearances, including two NCAA Tournament berths in 2015 and 2021 and an NIT runner-up finish in 2019.
In 2020, McKeown was named Big Ten Coach of the Year when he logged a program-record 26 wins in a single season. McKeown previously told The Daily that he believes his team’s best shot at national success would’ve been that year, had the NCAA Tournament not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Big Ten has grown into a collective of unprecedentedly successful juggernauts, the ’Cats have stumbled in recent years, logging 45 conference losses over the past three seasons.
Despite the downturn, McKeown’s legacy remains intact. Upon taking over a program long stuck in obscurity, he brought NU to national prominence.
“Beyond the wins and accolades, Coach McKeown has been a mentor, a role model and a true champion of what it means to be a Wildcat,” Athletic Director Mark Jackson said in the release.
Email: audreypachuta2027@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @AudreyPachuta
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