Joe McKeown to retire after 2025-26 season

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Northwestern's McKeown will retire after 2025-26

Northwestern women's basketball coach Joe McKeown, who has won nearly 800 games and made 17 NCAA tournaments over four decades spent mostly leading the Wildcats and George Washington, plans to retire after the 2025-26 season, the school announced Monday.

www.espn.com

McKeown credited ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon, a Northwestern alum and trustee, for convincing him to take the job in 2008.

"Seventeen years ago, on a golf course in Washington, D.C., Wildcat legend Michael Wilbon said I should look at Northwestern," he said in a statement. "I did, and we never looked back! I am excited to coach the Wildcats this upcoming 2025-26 season. It has been an honor to be in Evanston for the past 17 years. We brought Northwestern its first Big Ten championship in 30 years, went to multiple NCAA Tournaments, and put plenty of Wildcats in the WNBA and other pro leagues."

McKeown is the winningest coach at Northwestern and tops among active Big Ten women's coaches with a 268-258 mark in 17 seasons. The Wildcats reached the NCAA tournament in 2015 and 2021, when they advanced for the first time in 28 years

 

[Gopher68]

Good luck getting recruits for a lame duck coach.

 

[Bunyan]

Northwestern - ranked #7 academic school in the nation, a private university with a less than 7% chance of acceptance. Amazing school for recruits if they want six figure jobs for the rest of their lives after basketball.