New coaches to head Big Ten
By Anne McLaren
Assistant
Sports Editor
In a conference that has
been filled with coaching legends, suddenly Gene Keady is the coach
with the most tenure.
Gone are Jud Heathcote, Bobby
Knight, Tom Davis and Clem Haskins, just to name a few.
Last season Dan Monson took
over at Minnesota. Steve Alford took over at Iowa.
This season Mike Davis took
over at Indiana. Bill Self took over at Illinois. Bill Carmody took
over at Northwestern.
"One thing that’s
been great about this league — from an outsider following this
league — obviously the talent, but the coaches," said Self.
"There hasn’t really been much turnover up until just recently.
I feel real fortunate; I’m the new kid on the block, so to speak."
However, the turnover hasn’t
just been in the last year or two. Three years ago Brian Ellerbe took
over at Michigan and Jim O’Brien took over at Ohio State. And five
years ago Tom Izzo, Jerry Dunn and Dick Bennett started at Michigan
State, Penn State and Wisconsin, respectively.
The most publicized coaching
change came at Indiana, where Bob Knight was fired after 26 years.
"I think Mike will do
a great job," said Self. "I think our guys will be just as
jacked up to play Indiana than they would be if Coach Knight had been
there."
Alford, who played at Indiana
under Knight, still has respect for his former coach.
"Nobody … has the
Big Ten titles he has, nobody has the NCAA titles he has," he said.
"In my opinion, he’s
the greatest coach who’s ever coached the collegiate game. Anytime
you lose that in your league, you take a hit."
With Illinois’ returning
talent, Bill Self has perhaps the easiest task of any new coach. The
Illini return all five starters and 11 letterwinners; they were also
picked to finish first in the conference by the media and second by
the coaches.
Junior Cory Bradford was
picked as the preseason player of the year for the conference.
"I just hope that they
realize it doesn’t mean anything," said Self. "I would
much rather be postseason player of the year than preseason. Sure, I’m
happy for Cory. That brings attention to our program, which is positive.
As long as it doesn’t affect who he is or how he goes about his
business."
At Northwestern, Bill Carmody
has the task of resurrecting a program that did not win a conference
game last season and won just five games overall.
"We’re going to
take it one step at a time," said Carmody, who came to the Wildcats
from Princeton. "Maybe after a few steps, we can skip a couple
of steps."
Carmody said he wants to
build Northwestern into a national program.
"We’re not going
to try to lose games; we’re going to try to win every game,"
he said. "But I want to make sure we do it slowly and in the right
way so that I don’t skip anything.
"Then when we do get
a really good player with some size … we’ll be ready,"
he said. "But we need some size; we need some skillful guys up
front. Right now we’re small."
On the Wildcat roster there
are six freshmen, five sophomores and two juniors.
"I think Northwestern
has to recruit on a national level," said Carmody. "When I
was at Princeton we recruited nationally. I think we need to get better
players here."
Princeton went 24-2, 27-2,
22-8 and 19-11 in four seasons under Carmody. Keady said that you can
never overlook a team like Northwestern or it will beat you.
"I’ve always respected
everyone and never underrated anyone," he said.
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