He’s from New Jersey. He teaches the Princeton offense. He was an assistant under legendary coach Pete Carrill and head coach at Princeton. He took a team to a team to the NCAA basketball tournament. He coached at a university founded by John Evans. He has won 53% of his games as a head coach.
The Coach? Bill Carmody of Holy Cross.
Like Coach Scott, Carmody is from New Jersey and both were assistants at Princeton where they practiced Pete Carrill’s offense. Carmody took Princeton (1996-97, 1997-98) to the NCAA tournament twice and last year took Holy Cross (2015-2016) to the NCAA Tournament – while Joe Scott took Air Force (2003-04). He coached at Northwestern, DU’s John Evans sister University, and was fired prior to last season. Then, in his first season in the Patriot League, Carmody took the Crusaders to the NCAA Tournament.
Joe Scott will be joining the Crusaders as an assistant coach and his background and philosophy will mirror that of his new boss.
Joe Scott had a solid 9-year run at DU with a number of highlights discussed below.
As pointed out by Puck Swami:
Scott had some significant achievements at DU. He took DU from the literal rock bottom of the NCAA (RPI 347 in 2007) to the highest of finishing heights this Denver program has ever been as a D-I program — a 2013 WAC title, two best-ever 22 win seasons, and the first postseason victory in DU school history in the NIT over Ohio University. There was that very memorable ESPN win over Middle Tennessee State University when the DU students rushed the court, as well as some big regular season wins over the years, including the buzzer-beater at Utah State, St. Mary’s, Belmont, Northern Iowa, St. Joseph’s, Wyoming, CSU etc.
Some fans were put-off by the old-school yelling, the roster management (recruiting/transfer issues) and rebounding deficiencies – were all areas that were clearly subpar in today’s era and didn’t improve. The Princeton system is not every fan’s cup of tea, and it’s not a good system when in those games when your team needs to make a comeback or isn’t shooting well on a given night. It’s also not an easy system to recruit players to join – and DU did not have the fittest players out there, either. Scott is also not an extrovert but he was genial when you get to know him a bit as I did- especially on sports trivia, where he was peerless.
But on balance, Scott was a good basketball coach who got the program back to solid, respectable and sometimes even terrific basketball.
LetsGoDU wishes Coach Scott the very best in his new endeavor at Holy Cross.
Carmody was fired at Northwestern in March 2013.
2014-15 he was a “special assistant and adviser” to Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson (ex-Princeton player and head coach).
2015-16 was Carmody’s first at Holy Cross.
Thanks for the clarification Jerseyb. I didn’t know about Fairfield.
Carmody had a good run at Northwestern but, like Scott at DU, could never get over the hump for the NCAA’s.
Carmody was fired at Northwestern in March 2013.
2014-15 he was a “special assistant and adviser” to Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson (ex-Princeton player and head coach).
2015-16 was Carmody’s first at Holy Cross.
Thanks for the clarification Jerseyb. I didn’t know about Fairfield.
Carmody had a good run at Northwestern but, like Scott at DU, could never get over the hump for the NCAA’s.
Happy for Coach Scott. I wish him all the best. While I’m excited about the Rodney Billups era starting and the future of men’s hoops at DU, Scott did some good things while he was here.
Um . . . Carmody didn’t lead Holy Cross to its first NCAA tournament. In fact, Holy Cross WON the NCAA Tournament in 1947, and has been to the tournament a dozen times since.
First NCAA appearance for Holy Cross? Did you only start following college basketball in the last five years??
John – Who shit in your cornflakes?
Holy Cross has made the NCAA’s a number of times – I’ll never forget their 1947 squad! Correction made.
Now I didn’t have cornflakes this morning, but for the record – HC has been to the NCAA tournament 5 times this century. Having said that, we are happy to have Coach Scott at Holy Cross!
1947—–Bob Cousy was on that Holy Cross NCAA Championship team. He was a freshman but was not the main reason HC beat Oklahoma in the finals at Madison Square Garden that year. There were a lot of other very good players on the team from that “little” college in Worcester, MA.
Former Providence coach Joe Mullaney and the Celtics Tommy Heinson were also stud players for HC. Ron Perry I believe led the nation in scoring 20 or so years ago and pretty much carried HC to some decent seasons. I always think of HC as a basketball school.
Happy for Coach Scott. I wish him all the best. While I’m excited about the Rodney Billups era starting and the future of men’s hoops at DU, Scott did some good things while he was here.
Um . . . Carmody didn’t lead Holy Cross to its first NCAA tournament. In fact, Holy Cross WON the NCAA Tournament in 1947, and has been to the tournament a dozen times since.
First NCAA appearance for Holy Cross? Did you only start following college basketball in the last five years??
John – Who shit in your cornflakes?
Holy Cross has made the NCAA’s a number of times – I’ll never forget their 1947 squad! Correction made.
Nice to see all the Holy Cross fans on here. I think more people out here in Denver remember Holy Cross’ amazing upset of Minnesota in the NCAA Hockey tournament in 2006. Certainly, HC has a long history of basketball success. Would be great to see the two schools play in hoops someday!
Now I didn’t have cornflakes this morning, but for the record – HC has been to the NCAA tournament 5 times this century. Having said that, we are happy to have Coach Scott at Holy Cross!
1947—–Bob Cousy was on that Holy Cross NCAA Championship team. He was a freshman but was not the main reason HC beat Oklahoma in the finals at Madison Square Garden that year. There were a lot of other very good players on the team from that “little” college in Worcester, MA.
Former Providence coach Joe Mullaney and the Celtics Tommy Heinson were also stud players for HC. Ron Perry I believe led the nation in scoring 20 or so years ago and pretty much carried HC to some decent seasons. I always think of HC as a basketball school.
Let’s play a game or two in the future! It would be great for both schools.
More likely to play each other in hockey then hoops. True story: I once wrote a piece for a local paper where I watched 10 college hoop games in 10 days on my drive from NJ to Fla. and back. First game was Brown at Princeton. Brown beat Princeton for the first time ever at Princeton. (we’re talking 50+ games here) I went to speak with Princeton players after the game. They acted like the loss was no big deal and were glad the season was drawing to a pathetic close. I asked the senior captain: What is different playing for Scott instead of Carmody. He replied simply: Scott never stops yelling at us.
I’m all for playing different schools, lets get a home and home going! As an aside, former Holy Cross freshman Mitchell Hahn (6-8, Freemont NE) will be suiting up next fall for Nebraska Omaha. Better pick him up behind the arc!
Nice to see all the Holy Cross fans on here. I think more people out here in Denver remember Holy Cross’ amazing upset of Minnesota in the NCAA Hockey tournament in 2006. Certainly, HC has a long history of basketball success. Would be great to see the two schools play in hoops someday!
Let’s play a game or two in the future! It would be great for both schools.
More likely to play each other in hockey then hoops. True story: I once wrote a piece for a local paper where I watched 10 college hoop games in 10 days on my drive from NJ to Fla. and back. First game was Brown at Princeton. Brown beat Princeton for the first time ever at Princeton. (we’re talking 50+ games here) I went to speak with Princeton players after the game. They acted like the loss was no big deal and were glad the season was drawing to a pathetic close. I asked the senior captain: What is different playing for Scott instead of Carmody. He replied simply: Scott never stops yelling at us.
I’m all for playing different schools, lets get a home and home going! As an aside, former Holy Cross freshman Mitchell Hahn (6-8, Freemont NE) will be suiting up next fall for Nebraska Omaha. Better pick him up behind the arc!
Interesting info on Joe Scott for this Holy Cross alum. Please note that Bill Carmody took HC to its first NCAA WIN (not appearance) in 63 years. HC has made 13 NCAA appearances including an NCAA championship in 1947 and a third place finish in 1948. HC is one of only 16 schools to have won both the NCAA championship and the NIT and one of only 6 to have won both of those and the College World Series.
lol…this blog is turning into “Crossports West”
All visitors and comments welcome! Actually, you may like the last few articles we have done on the widening gap in D1 sports. This is going to impact Holy Cross and Denver in a big way.
Interesting info on Joe Scott for this Holy Cross alum. Please note that Bill Carmody took HC to its first NCAA WIN (not appearance) in 63 years. HC has made 13 NCAA appearances including an NCAA championship in 1947 and a third place finish in 1948. HC is one of only 16 schools to have won both the NCAA championship and the NIT and one of only 6 to have won both of those and the College World Series.
lol…this blog is turning into “Crossports West”
All visitors and comments welcome! Actually, you may like the last few articles we have done on the widening gap in D1 sports. This is going to impact Holy Cross and Denver in a big way.