	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)

October 29, 2009

Joe McKeown

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

JOE McKEOWN: It's been an interesting transition from 20 years at one school, at George Washington, to Northwestern, and then to the Big Ten. Last year was really a year that I felt like our goal was to change the culture of basketball there, lay a foundation, and try to build off that. And I felt like for the most part we did that. We were very competitive, and most of the games that we played, we won a few, and our goal this year is to win a few more and be a little more competitive and go from there.
We have five new freshmen which I think will really change our team this year, even though some days you wish they were sophomores. But other than that, it's really exciting for our players now. They feel like there's some continuity this year and things are a little bit more stable. That's probably the best word I can come up with. Yeah, really looking forward to the season.

Q. First year in the league, just kind of your perception of the league now that you've been in it a year and kind of your perception before you got here.
JOE McKEOWN: Well, I'll tell you, the year before that, I had a great team. We were ranked 8th or 9th in the country, got to the Sweet 16 and felt like we had a chance to make a run at the Final Four. In that two-year stretch a lot of people nationwide and in our business, really the Big Ten was a little down, and people didn't have great respect for it, and teams weren't moving, weren't advancing in the NCAA Tournament. So when I came into that, that was the thing that was on my mind, how I looked at the league.
Once I got here, I must have hit the senior year, because we had a great conference last year. We had five teams in the tournament. You could have made a case for one more. But Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State, those teams separated themselves out in the NCAA Tournament, and I think that's what had been missing from the Big Ten, because really, in our business, you're going to be judged by what you do in March as much as anything else.
So my perceptions are the league is a lot better than I thought. I was really impressed with the coaching. And I felt like every team had quality players. You know, some better than others, obviously, but it was a tough league. It was a tough league to play on the road, some great home courts in our league. Hopefully I can be one of those teams at some point soon.

Q. How has your freshman class adjusted to the first couple weeks of practice? And what are your impressions of them so far?
JOE McKEOWN: Our freshman class, one of the things that's different at Northwestern than I think probably most schools in our league, we're on a quarter system, so we don't even start school until September 21st or 22nd. So they come in a lot later than most schools.
I know I talked to Tennessee, they had started August 20th, so they had a whole month of school, conditioning before we even were handing out a pair of socks. So I think that's been a little bit different for us.
They've adjusted quickly, still some ups and downs, but I think they're going to be fine. I have two freshmen, and I will elaborate on them: One from Las Vegas, Nevada, Dannielle Diamant, 6'4", who has great basketball bloodlines. Her grandfather Jerry Tarkanian won a couple national championships with UNLV, is in the Hall of Fame. So I'm hoping that winning tradition carries over with her.
And then Kendall Hackney who was the Player of the Year at Ohio last year, freshman, 6'3", can really play. So those two I think have stood out so far and hopefully will make us better right away.

Q. You've been around Amy Jaeschke now for a year. I guess what's the next step in her development and what she needs to do to improve her game?
JOE McKEOWN: I think Amy Jaeschke had a chance to see -- I've been coaching women's basketball since 1979, so I've seen so many great players come through over the years, and she is as skilled as any big player out there. She's 6'5", can shoot threes, is a great passer, posts up, and I think she's just now coming into her own. I really believe she's one of the premier post players in the country. And we're in a league where you have some outstanding post players, an abundance of them when you talk about especially last year the Wisdom-Hyltons and Lavenders. It seemed like everybody had somebody 6'5" out there.
I just feel like maybe she might be one of the most underrated players in college basketball right now. I think for that to change, we have to put her out there a little bit, and I think she has to obviously play well. She's finally gotten herself into the condition of a high-level athlete. She's surrounded now with teammates who are somewhat her size. So we're not out there -- we reinvented the 5'9" power forward last year in the Big Ten; that was our team. So every time we raised our arms they just wouldn't go very far.
I think that helps her a lot. She's now surrounded by 6'2", 6'3" people, and it just makes her game a lot easier to play, and we can do a lot more with her. That was a long answer, but I'll tell you, she's a terrific player.

Q. You definitely have Amy Jaeschke and a lot of strong frontcourt players. How do you evaluate your backcourt and how are they going to match up with the rest of the Big Ten?
JOE McKEOWN: Well, I think that's right now my biggest concern is that our guard players have got to step up from last year. I felt like that was an Achilles for us. Usually when you take over a program that struggled, you usually have a couple of guards floating around that aren't very big. Our strength was inside.
We have a freshman guard from Kansas City Inesha Hill that I think is really going to help, and then Jenny Eckhart and Meshia Reed, a lot of players, Kristin Cartwright, they were all coming off injuries from the year before, a really bad year, and they've all gotten a lot better.
I think Kristin Cartwright had some great games in the league. She's a potential All Big Ten Player in the league as a senior. Jenny Eckhart, those guys have been around a while, they kind of just didn't have any confidence, but they have talent to compete with the rest of the guards in the Big Ten.
But that's something that we're going to have to really evaluate and get better at.

Q. I was wondering if you think the veteran teams like Minnesota, if they think there's less of a threat like Michigan, Northwestern, with a lot of younger players.
JOE McKEOWN: Do they think? I'm sorry?
Well, we beat Minnesota the last week of the season last year and probably played our best game of the year and almost knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament, which probably would have been a bad thing.
But I think the one thing about the league right now, we have some teams at the top that are coming off great teams, have great players back. Obviously Ohio State and Michigan State, you look at their rosters, and Minnesota beat Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament. But I do feel like there's really -- I think we're closing the gap. I guess that's what I mean. Not just talent-wise, but I think teams are capable. It seems like this could be a year where there's a lot of parity in our league. You're going to see any number of teams can beat each other. I hope that's the case for us, if that makes sense.
Schools that have traditionally struggled in this league have gone out and made changes. Schools are not going to stand still when you look at all the new coaches in the league and all us young coaches that got hired recently.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297