For Northwestern women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown, the decision to move to Evanston and accept the coaching position at Northwestern in 2008 was a no-brainer. But the reasons aren’t quite as simple as an outsider might think.
Before coming to Northwestern, McKeown was the head coach at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he was coming off of six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back sweet 16 berths. Under his guidance, the Colonials had established themselves as one of the premier women’s college basketball teams year-in and year-out, and their trajectory was still upwards.
Meanwhile, Northwestern’s program was in a dark place.