McKeown answers NU's call for help
There was Joe McKeown, as recently as a month ago, minding his business and enjoying some rare free time.
He was watching his 16-year-old daughter Meghan play AAU basketball. He was golfing in a few charity tournaments. He was laying low in his Washington D.C.-area home before the start of the summer basketball recruiting season.
Then Jim Phillips entered his life. Out of the blue.
The new and energetic Northwestern athletic director was looking for a women's basketball coach and he had McKeown at the top of his list -- out of 1,200 resumes he received when the job opened up on May 8.
"I was just enjoying myself and then Mr. Phillips got involved in my life," McKeown laughed. "That's the best way I can describe it. Everything was good until he called."
It was an S.O.S that Northwestern desperately needed to be made.
And fortunately for the NU women's basketball program, McKeown, who had spent the last 19 years building a perennial power at George Washington and probably could have easily retired there, answered the call.
If anyone seems equipped to rescue a once-proud program that has slipped to absurd levels of ineptitude over the last decade, it's McKeown.
McKeown (pronounced Mick-Q-an) might not be a household name here, but people who know women's college basketball know him well. They know he wins. They know he's a go-getter. They know he can recruit.
This is a good hire, and I'm glad that Phillips had the gumption to think big. Reviving a program that has won only 14 Big Ten games in the last nine seasons isn't a job for the faint of heart, or a beginner.
Recruits need to know that Northwestern is absolutely serious about winning now -- not another four or five years from now.
"This wasn't a job where we put the training wheels on and let someone learn on the job," Phillips said. "We don't have time for that. We've had a successful history and we've just fallen short of expectation (lately). We needed someone who was seasoned and successful in the regular season and ultra successful in the post season."
McKeown has been both.
In 19 years, he hasn't had a losing season. Not one. His teams at GW have won 14 regular season or postseason Atlantic 10 championships, and they've made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament the last two years.
In recent years, there have been many weeks that I've voted for George Washington in the Associated Press Top 25 national poll. McKeown's program was respected from coast to coast.
Think those vitals haven't created a buzz at Welsh-Ryan Arena?
"We had to (write down) and turn in what we wanted in a coach and I think they hit it right on the head," said NU sophomore center Amy Jaeschke, the Wildcats' best player last season. "We're really excited about it. He seems like a really good guy. Just the energy he brought into the room really got us excited about this year.
"Just hearing Jim Phillips (during the press conference) read through all the success (McKeown) has had got us really excited. It was like, 'That could be us soon.' "
If it's up to McKeown, it will be. The 52-year-old says he feels a sense of urgency, too.
"You can imagine, at my age, I didn't come here to wait around a long time," McKeown said. "This was a big decision for us to come here, and I left a good situation. But I was also looking for new challenges and I think the environment here is set up to win -- and win the right way."
Crowd pleaser: After the official press conference, McKeown talked to reporters individually.
I introduced myself, mentioning that I had played at NU in the early 1990s. McKeown then shocked me with his razor sharp memory.
"I remember you. You're a lefty, right?" he said with a smile. "I tried to recruit you, but you never returned my calls."
Maybe I should have. What a charmer McKeown is. If he can impress recruits like he did me, the Wildcats will be back in business soon.
No catch this time for Catchings' return
It's been a long time coming for Tamika Catchings.
The former Stevenson High School star will make her much-anticipated return to the court on Sunday when she leads the Indiana Fever into a showdown against the visiting San Antonio Silver Stars in Indianapolis.
Catchings, a five-time WNBA all-star out of Tennessee, has been the victim of some bad luck lately. She missed 13 regular-season games last season with a left foot injury. When she returned, she then injured her Achilles tendon during the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit.
Catchings, who was the WNBA's defensive player of the year in 2005 and 2006 and averaged 16.6 points and a career-best 9 rebounds last season, was shelved for months after enduring surgery last fall to repair the Achilles tendon.
Pixie power
Who's the next Mary Lou Retton or Shannon Miller?
Maybe it's 4-foot-9 Shawn Johnson. The 16-year-old from Iowa became a national champion for the second straight year when she won both the all-around title and the floor exercise competition last weekend at an Olympic tune-up meet at Boston University.
The top 13 finishers from that meet will compete for a spot on the 2008 Olympic team at the Olympic Team Trials, which run June 19-22 in Philadelphia. Among those competing will be 16-year-old Mackenzie Caquatto of Naperville Central, who already has qualified for the U.S. National Team.
NBC will pick up coverage on Saturday and continue through Sunday, broadcasting both the all-around women's and men's finals.
-- Patricia Babcock McGraw