While John Shurna and Co. flirted with the possibility of Northwestern earning its first ever NCAA Tournament bid, there was another team taking the floor at Welsh-Ryan Arena last year. The Wildcats’ women’s basketball team churned out a 14-16 season, going just 4-12 in conference play.
Yet with the return of seniors Dannielle Diamant and Kendall Hackney, and the progression of sophomore point guard Karly Roser, Northwestern’s women’s team stands to take huge strides this winter. With five new freshmen and a bevy of unanswered questions, coach Joe McKeown will certainly stay busy.
McKeown boasts more than 500 career wins and 20 postseason berths. If anyone can turn around the Wildcats, it’s a man with an all-time winning percentage of .745. North by Northwestern caught up with Coach McKeown to talk about a new look for his offense, the importance of senior leadership, and expectations for the team in his fifth season in Evanston.
Back in 1989, you inherited a George Washington team that went 9-19, quickly turning it around into a perennial Tournament contender. Last year, the Wildcats were under .500. What can you do as a coach to turn this team around?
You just have to move forward and build on some of the positive things we did. When you have a freshman point guard who played 35 minutes a game, like Karly Roser, you feel like as a sophomore things will get much better. Dannielle [Diamant] and Kendall [Hackney] both played big minutes for us last year, and were all-conference players. So it gives us a core of three players, and we can lean on them, and we’ll try to feed off the energy of the new players too.
What are some of the transitions and progressions that Karly Roser has made at the point guard?
I think the biggest thing you see, whether you’re a rookie in the NBA or a quarterback in the NFL, it’s just experience and confidence. You’re going to have some rough nights, and she did, and she also had some great nights. Eventually, your confidence level just takes off, and I want her to understand just how good she can be.
In recent years, this program has had some great perimeter shooters. Where is the perimeter offense at this year? Will we see a more post-heavy offense as Danielle Diamant continues to improve?
I think practice has looked good on both ends, and we’re just excited to get started. I think we have at least eight or nine good shooters and they’re going to have some nights where the ball just doesn’t go in, but I think shooting is one of our strengths.
Who’s one player that’s really stood out in practice thus far?
Kendall Hackney, even though you already expect a lot from her, I think she’s pretty consistent every day, which is what you want to see from a senior. And another senior, Kate Popovec, brings a lot to the table every day. [Laughing] I know you asked for one, but I’ll give you two.
Over the course of your career, you’ve beaten some nationally high-profile teams, like DePaul, Ohio State and LSU. With the Big Ten looking strong again this year, how do you prepare this relatively young team for the big games coming up?
I think you have to divide everything into three mini-seasons. You have a pre-season, non-conference. And [non-conference games] prepare you, win or lose, because you have limited practice time. You’re still learning, and you want to take those first 13 games as a learning experience. Last year, we were 10-3 before we played the Big Ten. And then you have the conference season and then hopefully the postseason. There were a lot of injuries last year that we couldn’t predict or prevent, and we felt, sitting at 9-1, that we were playing just as well as any team in the country. But you can’t get too high or low about what happens in the non-conference, because the goal is to set up for the Big Ten. You want to play your best basketball in February and March.
Speaking of the Big Ten, what in-conference opponent entices you the most, or worries you the most?
I think it’s so balanced, it’s a bizarre conference from a standpoint that anyone on a given night can beat anyone else. Maybe Penn State, that could be a team that could move up into the national polls and be a top-10 team in the country. They’re going to get a lot of attention as we get started. But, when your conference puts seven teams in the Tournament last year, and 10 of 11 in the postseason, you can’t let your guard down on any night.
With Dannielle Diamant and Kendall Hackney really producing last year, which senior are you expecting the most out of this season?
I think Dannielle and Kendall both have been unbelievable. What they’ve done to turn around this program, they bought into me when I got here; they were the first group we recruited. So you look at them and think, wow, they came into a program that averaged four wins a year, and now we average 17 wins a year. This is all they know, and you really want to feed off both of them. You want them to end their careers on a high note.
You’ve coached a bunch of NCAA Tournament teams over the course of your career. What do you see from this team that’s Tournament-worthy, and what’s missing?
It’s probably a little early to figure out what’s missing right now, but I think we have some really good ingredients. What you have to do to be one of those 64 teams [that qualify for the Tournament] is you have to stay healthy, and maybe get a little lucky in that respect, and you have to have some size, be physical, and be able to defend at a really high level. And I think we have the potential to do those things. Because we have six new players, it’s going to take a little time, be a bit of a work in progress. You don’t know whether they’ll be tired come February, they’ve never been through this. Guys like Alex Cohen and Karly have gone through this, they’ve been through a lot, so hopefully we can take some leadership from them. To be one of those teams in March, you really have to have the talent and the depth, and especially in the Big Ten, depth is pretty paramount I believe.
Anything else you’d like to add?
We’re just excited to get going. I like our team. I like our energy and our attitude. We’re going to have our ups and downs come November and December, but you want to compete, and that’s the important thing. The opponent here really is us, and once the team buys into just worrying about ourselves and taking care of our business, I think that’s when good things are going to happen.