William D. Carmody (born December 4, 1951) is a retired American men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach, formerly the head coach at the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

. He was the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the

Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

men's basketball team at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

from 2000 through 2013. From 1996 through 2000, Carmody was the head coach at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Early life and education

Carmody was born in

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

, and grew up in Spring Lake, where he attended

St. Rose High School St. Rose High School is a co-educational four-year Catholic school, Catholic high school in Belmar, New Jersey, Belmar, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The school operates under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trento ...

, a Roman Catholic private school, in nearby Belmar. He attended and graduated from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1975. He led Union's basketball team to a 59–11 record in his three years as a starter.

Career

After graduating from Union College, Carmody served as head coach of Fulton-Montgomery Community College in Johnstown, New York, and led the team to a 17–10 record and conference title in his only season there. He returned to Union the following year as an assistant coach under head coach Bill Scanlon. In 1980, Carmody became a part-time assistant at Providence College, where he worked for 2 seasons under head coach Gary Walters.

Princeton

From 1982 through 1996, he was an assistant basketball coach at

under the Tigers' legendary coach,

Pete Carril Peter Joseph Carril (July 10, 1930 – August 15, 2022) was an American basketball coach. He is best known as head coach of Princeton University for 30 years and for his use of the "Princeton offense". He also coached at Lehigh University an ...

. After fourteen years, he became the head coach in 1996 when Carril retired. Despite not being able to offer athletic scholarships due to Ivy League rules, Carmody's 1997–1998 team reached a ranking as high as 7th nationally, and was ranked 8th nationally going into the NCAA Tournament. This led to a number-five

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

in the NCAA tournament. That team lost in the second round of the tournament to #4 seed (and eventual 10th ranked) Michigan State, and was ranked 16th nationally at the conclusion of the tournament. He is considered one of the leading practitioners of the

Princeton offense The Princeton offense is an offensive basketball strategy which emphasizes constant motion, back-door cuts, picks on and off the ball, and disciplined teamwork. It was used and perfected at Princeton University by Pete Carril, though its roots ma ...

. While coaching

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, he established the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

career winning percentage record of 78.6%, going 92–25.

Northwestern

In 2000, he succeeded Kevin O'Neill as the head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats Men's Basketball Team. One of his top assistants from 2000 to 2006 was Craig Robinson, the brother of former

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

. From 2008 to 2014, Robinson was the head coach at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. In 2003–04, Carmody led the Wildcats to an 8–8 record in Big Ten play, their first non-losing record in conference play since 1967–68. On January 18, Northwestern defeated the then-number-seventeen

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

. On January 21, 2009, Carmody's Kevin Coble-led

defeated number-seven

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

at the

Breslin Center The Jack Breslin Student Events Center is a multi-purpose arena at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. The arena opened in 1989, and is named for Jack Breslin, MSU alumnus, former athlete and administrator, who first began p ...

East Lansing East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County. At the 2020 Census the population was 47,741. Located directly east of the state capital ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

earning their second consecutive win over an opponent ranked in the AP top 25, marking the first time in school history for such a feat. The 2008–09 unit became the first in school history to win 20 games and briefly flirted with the first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. On December 28, 2009, Northwestern was ranked number 25 in the Associated Press Basketball Poll, marking the first time Northwestern had been ranked in the AP Poll since 1969. The 2009–10 team also notched the school's second-ever 20-win season. Despite Carmody's efforts to upgrade the Wildcat program, his teams never finished higher than fifth in the Big Ten, and his 2003–04 team was the only one that finished with even a .500 record in conference play. After the Wildcats suffered their first losing season in six years, Carmody was fired on March 16, 2013. He left as the second-winningest coach in school history, behind only

Dutch Lonborg Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg (March 16, 1898 – January 31, 1985) was a basketball, American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. Basketball The Gardner, Illinois native coached for 23 years at McPherson Colleg ...

Holy Cross

After spending the 2014–15 season as a special assistant and advisor to Fairfield coach Sydney Johnson, Carmody was hired as the head coach of the

Holy Cross Crusaders The Holy Cross Crusaders are the athletic teams representing the College of the Holy Cross. They primarily compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Patriot League. In ice hockey, a sport not sponsored by the Patriot League for either sex, th ...

in March 2015. In Carmody's first year with the Crusaders, his team won the Patriot League Tournament Championship. After going 0–9 on the road in league play, he completed a magical conference tournament run of 4–0 on the road to claim the crown. Carmody would coach three more seasons at Holy Cross before ultimately retiring after the 2018–2019 season.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Holy Cross profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmody, Bill 1951 births Living people Basketball coaches from New Jersey Basketball players from New Jersey College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball coaches Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Rahway, New Jersey People from Spring Lake, New Jersey People from Wilmette, Illinois Princeton Tigers men's basketball coaches Providence Friars men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Monmouth County, New Jersey St. Rose High School alumni Union Dutchmen basketball coaches Union Dutchmen basketball players American men's basketball players