Big Ten Basketball Media Days have never been so B1G.
Looking to improve in the Big Ten’s new landscape after consecutive nine-win seasons, Northwestern returns four of its five main starters from last year. Now entering his 17th season as Northwestern’s coach, here’s what Joe McKeown had to say at Big Ten Basketball Media Days in Rosemont before the ‘Cats kick off their season on Nov. 6 against Illinois State.
Note: These quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Women’s Basketball Coaches Panel
McKeown on what he’s excited for in the expanded Big Ten this season: “I think one thing — I was watching my player last night, Veronica Burton, play in the WNBA for Connecticut. Just coming off the year we had NCAA-wise and watching the pros, I just hope we can take advantage of this opportunity. We have a great window right now. Our game is so hot. We have great coaches and players. I think we have the attention of the fans. So really that’s what I’m looking for and looking forward to.”
McKeown on the recognition women’s basketball is receiving: “Thank God I look young. This is my 42nd year in women’s basketball. One thing, just being part of it — on my staff I have a great player, Tangela Smith, who played 15 years in the WNBA and one of the great players in the history of the Big Ten and Big Ten Player of the Year. We talk a lot about pioneers. We talk to our players about that a lot. I think everybody up here is a pioneer and has given their whole professional career to women’s basketball. We all got stories of driving minivans, 15 passengers, stopping at McDonald’s. It was great. If you lost, it wasn’t so great, but it was an eight-hour drive back, and I felt like I was the luckiest guy in the minivan that day. Hopefully, the pioneers and the people that have set the table for what’s happening now, I hope this group appreciates it. I think they do.”
Media Availability
McKeown on the expanded conference: “Yeah, I think there’s some fundamental things that never change in our sport, and I think when you have unselfish players, it didn’t matter if it was 40 years ago or this week, they’re going to win. And obviously you have to have a certain talent. But I think, a lot of the things that we’re seeing, especially in the Big Ten, there’s so much more talent. We used to have a lot of great players, and then it kind of would slow down, but now it’s so deep. Our sport is so deep, and we’re seeing that in pro ranks too. So think that’s probably the biggest difference.”
McKeown on how Northwestern takes the next step forward: “This year, the biggest thing for us would be we had to rebuild at some points, first time in 15 years, and I think now — at Northwestern, to transfer into our school is not easy, and we’re not built that way. We have 8,000 students in the undergrad. So because of COVID, the grad school idea for us is starting to become an avenue to recruit. We haven’t had that before, so I think we’re seeing that now in practice with a couple players. We’re just not a school that could depend on transfers. So I think that’s helped. Some of the grad programs that are now available at Northwestern that weren’t in the past.”
McKeown on transfer additions: “The two that stood out, we got a big girl who’s from Illinois. Grace Sullivan played at Bucknell the last two years and won a state championship in high school in Illinois. I don’t know why we didn’t recruit her. We were asleep at the wheel, I guess. But she’s got a chance to be really good, really impressed with her. Taylor Williams played at Michigan last year, and before that, played at Western Michigan, had some injuries. She reminds me of Nia Coffey, who was a first round pick for us. Has that kind of athletic ability and balance quickness.
McKeown on the returners: Caroline Lau and Mel [Daley] and those guys, they paid their dues. They’ve been here a long time now. You know, you forget Mel Daley and Caileigh Walsh and Hailey [Weaver]. They beat Caitlin Clark three times in a row when they got here. Sometimes you forget how good those guys could be at times, and they’ve had some injuries too. But just to give you a little bit for that group to step up, to pay their dues, I think we got a chance. I really like the energy of this team.”
McKeown on Brown transfer Kyla Jones: “Kyla is like a quiet assassin. It’s interesting, she averaged 17, 18 points a game. And in practice, you’re like, ‘How’d you get all those points?’ And all of a sudden, you look at some stat at the end or you watch film from practice, and that’s what she does. She gets quiet points. You don’t know how it happens. And I think she just sneaks up on everybody, shoots threes, has this uncanny ability to get to the rim and finish left handed, sometimes a little harder to guard at times. So we’re excited about her — a strong, tough, really good transition player.”
McKeown on NIL and recruiting: “I think the biggest challenge right now for all of us, not just in the Big Ten, is looking at your team and understanding it changes quickly. How do you teach your system to a player that’s only going to be with you for six months? And so, I think that’s part of the recruiting process when you’re talking to them. You have to evaluate, can I coach her? What can she bring to the table in six months? So I think that’s been a change because we’ve been a player development program. We’ve always had great freshmen coming in as a group, the older players taught them. Now I’m bringing in kids that are older than my older players. I don’t know what to say to them, give them an AARP card or something.”
“But I think that’s been a challenge. I think the coaches that can simplify their systems and, ours is not that complicated anyway, but it’s still learning. And I think the second part of that is: these guys learn how to play with each other, because it’s the ultimate team sport, right? You got new teammates. You got to learn their tendencies, who can play with who, matchups, things like that. So I think those two things are really important right now, and they’re big. But man, trying to get these guys in six months to understand in a league as talented as the Big Ten, where everybody over-scouts, everybody knows what you’re trying to do — it’s just stopping it. I know what they’re trying to do, but you got to be able to stop it.”
McKeown on returning leaders: “I think we’re going to lean on them, especially as we start with non-conference, and try to let them set the tone. They have this experience playing together, and you can’t recreate that, you can’t teach that. So hopefully, we see some of that now. They kind of know each other’s games and tendencies. Just like anything else, when Veronica Burton walked in, we had this great point guard named Jordan Hamilton. And next thing you know, I’m like, ‘Veronica’s got to play. So let’s move Jordan to the two guard’, and that’s going to happen too. And fortunately, Jordan was a really good two guard.”
McKeown on team chemistry: “I think the one thing that has helped, we had the opportunity this summer to work together for about five weeks, and I think that it gave them a chance to get to know, move people into dorms. On campus, the pace is a little slower, kind of gives you a chance to really learn how things work at Northwestern. So I think that really helped us. And the summer before, a lot of these guys played on a team. We went to Spain and played. We spent 10, 12 days. Played three games. But more importantly, you got to practice before you went to Europe. Same thing happened to Chris Collins this summer. They got to go to Italy. Those trips really help when you have new players.”
McKeown on travel: “For the 14 schools that have been part of the Big Ten, there’s so much unknown about the four schools coming in. I’ve played all four of them over the years. I’ve been to all their gyms, because I’ve been around a while, but we don’t know what to expect. So there’s this kind of uneasy excitement. [That’s the] best way to describe it. And we think it’s going to make the league better. Obviously, you’re talking about some of the most talented teams, coaches. So, the way to travel is going to play into that. I think you got to go through it for a year or two and then kind of reshuffle and say, ‘Okay, how’s that working?’ Nobody knows. There’s been a lot of dialogue in the media of should this just be football since they play once a week — what do you do with all your other sports? So I think until you go through it, you’re not going to know.”
McKeown on the impact of travel on recruiting network: “We have two California kids on our team, both Southern California. Sometimes you are a prototype of your student body. Our students come from all over the country, all over the world. We just had Pallas [Kunaiyi-Akpanah], great player for us playing the Olympics from Nigeria. We’ve had players from all different parts of the country and internationally. So I think for us, having the West Coast, I think it helps us. We have a West Coast presence at Northwestern. It’s not unusual to sit in class with somebody from the Bay Area, Pacific Northwest or Arizona. With a lot of schools that are big state schools, maybe their student body is more regional.”
McKeown on the Big Ten’s global brand: “You’re coast to coast. You look at rosters now and student athletes are coming from everywhere to play in the Big Ten. It’s not going to change schools. There’s great opportunities, with the West Coast schools, great opportunities with the Midwest schools. And last time I looked, we got [three] East Coast schools and I’ve been here through all the expansion. I lived in DC for 20 years, and I still look at Maryland as an ACC school. You got to keep up with the change.”
McKeown on women’s basketball’s momentum: “I think one of the things that’s important to that question is we don’t lose this momentum because I don’t want to say we caught lightning in a bottle. But I’ve been in this a long time, when the only ones in the crowd were parents or the referee’s spouse yelling at me and taking minivans 10 hours to get to a game. And you loved it, because you loved the sport. Even the WNBA, now they’re chartering, it’s amazing it took that long. But this is where we’re at. People are holding our sport accountable, and they’re holding the people accountable, whether it’s athletic directors to spend more money on women’s basketball, or whether it’s general managers or owners of the WNBA teams to spend more money on their franchise. We’re hitting it right, and we have to take advantage of this window, because you don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
McKeown on keeping the momentum going: “I think the media has to embrace our sport, not just the Caitlin Clark’s of the world, the Juju Watkins. The media has to embrace how well our game is played on college campuses and in the pros and to a certain extent in high schools now. But universities, including this league, our league, we have to market this at a really high level. We are seeing more games on TV. So that’s a given. And we’re seeing good games on TV, so people are watching. They’re not turning it off because there’s something else they’d rather watch. The WNBA needs to be marketing. Basketball is a star sport, and you got to market your stars. When your stars are like Caitlin Clark, with that type of charisma, it really helps our game. We’re seeing that with some WNBA players. I think same thing in college, you got to market your stars. That is just the way it is. One reason the NBA exploded was because of its star power. We need that.”
McKeown on what he’s grateful for with the game’s growth: “I think the one thing is, when you walk into a gym to feel like, ‘Wow, there’s a game tonight, and it’s important’. Where before you walked into a gym and you’re like, ‘Oh, man, there’s nobody here.’ I can tell you, we used to play Georgetown, and John Thompson, the legendary John Thompson, he would lock the door so you couldn’t get in until he was done with practice. You had to bang on the window. You’d be out in the middle of the snow. Referees would be banging on the windows. We all had to wait outside. That’s how it was. And you know now when you walk in, you feel like there’s a game tonight. It’s important.”
McKeown on how Northwestern can get back to its defensive mentality: “I think experience and getting healthy, staying healthy, I got my back court right here, and the two of them better guard this year. But I think just experience now. We were a second late to the best players on the other team last year, and teams are too good. Players are too good. So by the time we got there, ball is in the basket. Our league was so good last year, and it was everybody. There was no break off as good as Iowa was, or Ohio State or whatever, everybody could beat everybody on a given night.”
McKeown on Northwestern’s depth at guard: “I think it’s a good problem to have, and I appreciate that question, because we just talked about it last night as a staff, too. We’re a lot deeper. Xamiya [Walton] is somebody that will give us a lot of depth at the point, and it’s going to push Caroline. And also gives you more options. She can really shoot it too. So they can play together at times. They’re both really quick. And I think our perimeter, our one, two and three, we’re just a lot deeper. I think we can run more. We can press more, and our big kids can run.”
McKeown on Northwestern’s bigs: “When you see Taylor Williams run, you think you’re at the Olympic track meet and same with Grace. Grace seems to beat everybody down the floor. Just has the knack of knowing how to play. All these guys have been really impressive. Mercy [Ademusayo] has had a lot of injuries, and she, by this time in her career should be the leading shot blocker in the Big Ten, and she just hasn’t been able to get healthy to get to that point. You look around. You guys are with me today. I look at the size of these players walking around, and I better get Mercy healthy quick because teams are walking around at 6-foot-,6 6-foot-7, and I think that’s something we don’t have. We got some size, but you’re going to need that.”
“Caileigh Walsh is close to scoring her 1000th point. She’s proven she can score in the Big Ten at power forward or center. So that’ll give us that scoring punch. Tayla Thomas, a freshman from New Jersey, who played at IMG in Florida — big, strong, tough kid, gives us great hands, and gives us some things physically that we’re really excited about. We look up some days. We’re 10, 11, 12, deep. Hailey Weaver was probably our leading three point shooters last year, percentage wise, and brings speed and quickness. And then we have a young lady that played for Kobe Bryant — well documented, Kat Righeimer. But we’ve been really impressed with her basketball IQ, and then Crystal Wang, coming back. Learned a lot last year. Everybody talks about Juju [Watkins]. They were teammates in high school too. Crystal just came back from doing a three day clinic with Steph Curry. So hopefully that helps. We’re just a lot deeper.”
McKeown on Walsh’s foul troubles: “I think she had some tough injuries last year, and she played through them and fought through a lot, so I think just being healthy too will give her a little more pop to her movement. And she’s strong, and I think she’s worked really hard. I think the experience, she’s a year smarter. Some of the fouls that got her in trouble over the last two years, I think she’s grown past that. I hope, because I need her on the floor.”
McKeown on starting games strong: “I want to say two, three years ago, we were turning people over almost 20 times a game. Defensively, we were so good and I thought with that, when you weren’t making shots, you were still getting buckets off transition and steals and turnovers. So I think this team has the potential to turn people over, and that’s how you want to start the game. Come out aggressive, maybe get some quick buckets off steals, and I think we’ll be deeper to play that way. We’re playing catch up a lot, we can get leads early, too. No fun playing from behind the whole year.”