Hoop scoop

Updates on Demon basketball coaches current and past …

… head coach Mike McConathy has been invited to be grand marshal of the Marthaville Heritage Festival Parade Saturday, Sept. 16 (later that day, the Demon football team plays its home opener against Delaware State at Turpin Stadium). He gets to throw candy to the crowd, and perhaps other goodies, too. Somehow I think there may be a Demon basketball T-shirt or two sailing out of his hands during the parade.

… Gabe Carter, a graduate assistant manager and a valued member of the basketball staff for the past two seasons, has waded through the job market all summer long, and has managed to stay in college basketball. The Arkansas native is now part of the basketball staff at Olney Central Community College in Olney, IL.
In an e-mail to friends and colleagues, Carter said in “my time at Northwestern, I learned so much as a coach, student, and person … and would like to thank you all. Hope to see or hear from you in the future.” Gabe was a class act and is certainly going to be a fine coach. His girlfriend is former Demon Angel Nettie Krepper, so we know Carter can recruit.

… Carter replaced Paul Weir on the Demons’ staff. Weir, you might remember, moved to Iowa as an administrative assistant in late spring 2005 after helping the Demons win their first Southland Conference championship.

Paul was on the Iowa bench last March 17 when the Demons rallied from 17 down in the last eight minutes and beat the Hawkeyes 64-63 on Jermaine Wallace’s last-second 3-pointer. He was already in agony all week long, trying to reconcile his competitive drive and his job with his emotions and pride in what the Demons had accomplished. Weir had become very close, as Carter did, with the Demon players and coaching staff. Throughout the 2005-06 season, he remained in close contact with the coaching staff at NSU. Can you imagine his conflicted feelings in the hours and days after NSU’s St. Patrick’s Day surprise?

So it was nice to see Tuesday that Iowa head coach Steve Alford has promoted Weir to the “director of basketball operations” job for the Hawkeyes. Former NSU sports information director Steve Roe (1981-85), who handles basketball for the Iowa SID office in his hometown of Iowa City, forwarded the announcement of Weir’s promotion.

Paul got his master’s in sport administration before heading to Iowa, and now is working on a doctoral degree.