Bill Carmody Retires

Of all of the people that TigerBlog has met during his 30 years at Princeton, there hasn't been anyone else remotely like Bill Carmody.

TigerBlog met Carmody in 1989, when he was still as an assistant coach under Pete Carril with the Princeton men's basketball team, and he liked him immediately. TB was with Carmody forthe final seven of the 14 seasons he spent as an assistant to Carril, and then he spent four glorious years as the men's basketball contact while Carmody was the head coach.

As he has said before, no Ivy League basketball contact could ever ask for more than those four seasons.

They were filled with wins - two Ivy League titles, two NCAA appearances, two trips into the national top 25 and one into the top 10 - and even when Carmody's Tigers didn't win the league, they had incredible moments that TB will never forget - the comeback win over Penn at the Palestra in 1999 and the run to the NIT quarterfinals later that year, as well as the Rainbow Classic championship in Hawaii in December 1998.

More than that, there was Carmody himself. TigerBlog can't think of one bad moment that he ever had with Carmody. He can think of dozens, maybe more, where he laughed, smiled, learned something and generally admired the man for his basketball knowledge, way with people, demeanor, humor, extraordinary competitiveness, family ties and, well, something TB would call a calm ferocity. 

Bill Carmody retired earlier this week after winning 342 games in 21 seasons at Princeton, Northwestern and Holy Cross. TigerBlog wanted to write something about him as he heads to retirement, but he realized he'd already said exactly what he wanted to say about him back in 2013. 

And so, TB shares this with you again. And he congratulates Bill Carmody, one of the absolute best people TB has ever met, on an amazing career:


Somewhere in TigerBlog's closet is the mini-cassette from the 1998 Rainbow Classic press conference in Honolulu.

Of course, nowhere in TigerBlog's universe is anything to play a mini-cassette on anymore, so you'll just have to take his word for it.

Anyway, the tape is of Bill Carmody's press conference at the University of Hawaii, after Princeton defeated Charlotte to win the tournament. Carmody was asked by one of the Hawaiian sportswriters about how everyone on the team seemed comfortable shooting three-pointers, even the big men.

Carmody's response:

"Everyone here can make a three. Our center can make a three. Our SID can make a three."

He thought back to the four years when Carmody was Princeton's head coach and TB was the men's basketball SID.

Carmody went 92-25 in his four years at Princeton, and TigerBlog was at every one of those 117 games, in the locker room after each one, on the walk to the interview room after each one.

He ran the press conference in Indianapolis, hastily called, when Carmody officially took over for Pete Carril. Somewhat famously, Carril had announced his retirement after 29 seasons at Princeton after the Tigers had defeated Penn in the Ivy playoff at Lehigh in 1996 a few days earlier, when he went up to the podium in Bethlehem and basically said this:

"I'm retiring at the end of this year ... and Billy Carmody will be the new coach."

TB remembers vividly walking Carmody from the locker room into the media room in the RCA Dome (a building that no longer exists) and to a small circular table like it was yesterday, as opposed to 17 years ago.

He remembers Carmody's first game as head coach, in the 1996 preseason NIT at Indiana. After the Tigers had played hard and lost, Carmody was asked about his team's performance. He said this:

"We run the shoot and run. One guy shoots, everyone else runs back on defense."

Princeton would go 24-4 his first year and then 27-2 his second with an Ivy League record of 28-0 those two years combined. Princeton lost to Cal, with future NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez, in the 1997 NCAA tournament and then defeated UNLV before losing to Michigan State in the 1998 tournament. Princeton and Michigan State were tied in the final minute; the Spartans would start four of the same players two years later when they won the NCAA title.

The Tigers reached the NIT the next two years, but even those years had silver linings.

Princeton won that Rainbow Classic by beating Florida State, Texas and Charlotte on consecutive nights. The 1999 season featured the amazing comeback win over Penn at the Palestra, when the Tigers trailed 27-3 and 40-13 with 15 minutes left, only to rally for a 50-49 victory.

And there was the 1999 NIT, when Princeton beat Georgetown at home (playing the same five guys the entire game) and North Carolina State in Raleigh (last game in Reynolds Coliseum) before falling at Xavier, who could come back to Jadwin the next year and see future NBA player David West shoot 1 for 11.

Added up, it came to four seasons, two NCAAs, two NITs, a Top 25 national ranking in 1997, a Top 10 national ranking in 1998, 13 wins over teams currently in BCS conferences, in-season tournament wins as far away as Hawaii and as close as Madison Square Garden (where he famously called timout and when, asked by the players how to attack the zone that they didn't expect, said "you're smart guys; you'll figure it out) and perhaps the best game in any sport TigerBlog was ever at (the comeback at the Palestra).

As TB has said so many times to people since, no Ivy League basketball SID can ever ask for more than Bill Carmody provided during his time here, starting with the day Carril retired and lasting for Carmody's four years as head coach. TB was the one lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Beyond just the winning, Carmody was hilarious, especially during the walks to the postgame interview rooms and his interactions with the media once he got there.

TB can't remember ever having one problem with Carmody during the entire time he worked with him. He respected what TB did and, like the best coaches TB has worked with, made him feel like what he did was important to the program without being a phony or condescending about it.

Carmody is among the most competitive people TB has ever met, something that came out every time he'd play lunchtime basketball, let alone coach the Tigers.

TigerBlog wonders what's next for Carmody. Maybe the NBA? TB thinks he'd be awesome on television, for that matter.

He hasn't spoken to him about anything; in fact, he's only spoken to him once in the 13 years since Carmody left here.

But he's rooted for him the entire time he's been at Northwestern, a place where it's impossible to win big at and a place where he won more than the school was used to winning.

TB has two stories that completely encapsulate what Bill Carmody is all about.

The first was in practice at Jadwin one day, when a backup got beat for a layup and yelled a curse really loudly in the empty gym.

"Hey," Carmody snapped at him. TB assumed he was going to tell the kid not to use that language anymore.

"The idea of the game," Carmody said, "is to get the other guy to curse."

Then there was the lockerroom in 1999, after Princeton had defeated the Bison in Lewisburg 50-48 on Mason Rocca's hook shot with two seconds left. It was a Tuesday night, TB believes, and he's pretty sure it was raining.

He stood in the back of the locker room, sort of in an adjoining room, so he couldn't see anyone, could only hear what was being said.

Carmody told his team that night that yes they had won but no they hadn't given their best effort. He told them that they only get four years worth of opportunities to give their best effort, and to let one of them get away was something they'd regret later on.

It was such a great speech, so passionate, so insightful. It was the last thing TB expected to hear. He thought it would be "great job, let's get out of here." Instead, it's something that TB has never forgotten, something that he has referred back to in his own experiences since.

And he wasn't even a player.

His time at Princeton was a glorious one, and TB laughs and smiles every time he thinks back to those days.

TB was just lucky to have a front row seat for the Bill Carmody era here.