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Show SportstQCulor WISIX STATE'S Nail McCarthy has proven himself a winner, plain and simple. appear sharp and crisp for another wild Big Sky Conference season. With his teom winning their eighth straight 'ast Tuesday evening, the Wildcats Weber's McCarthy is a winner, plain and simple NcI McCarthy is a winner, plain and simple, he is a winn' and with an average of 21 wins per season over the lb.it four years, not too many people seem likely to he took over a team that argi:- that point In 1975-7recoi ''td the first losing season in the school's history the ;r. vious year and turned them into conference Since the inception of the Big Sky Post-Senir.rv Fouraament, McCarthy's teams have played in ail fo v of them the only school to boast such a record. La season, his team recorded the second best at Weber, posting a 2S-- 9 mark, only a 27-- 3 recoi reecM uler Phil Johnson in 1998-6was better. The Wik successfully defended their Big Sky Confers vile, defeatiag Northern Arizona and Mom- -, a 90-7la the peat season tourney to earn a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament In as maa ears where they defeated New Mexico State 91-- 7 m the first round, the only team la the stale of I'tah to win an NCAA Tanraament game la 1979. Pmtably the most incredible season under McCarthy was in 197778 when he took the youngest storting lineup of any major college in the country and ..Med them into champions. Learning as they went, the team Initiated play in a multl-millio- o dollar sports arena and faced one of their toughest schedules in history. After struggling their way into the playoffs, the yomg Wildcats won their first Big Sky Conference Championship aonce 1973, by beating the number one team in the conference oo its home court in a pressure packed overtime game. The youngsters advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they were defeated by Arkansas which eventually finished third In the nation. For his part in engineering this stellar performance, McCarthy was named Big Sky Conference "COACH OF THE YEAR. la 1976-7McCarthy's 16--8 hag club wee the coveted BUCKET symbol of basketball OQUIRRH supremary m haskrthal-craz- y Utah, by beating Utah, Utah State and Brigham Young In the tame stun. That same year, the Wildcats were runners-u- p in the - 6, ss 9 92-7- 9) 1) r prestigious Far West Classic, losing the championship game to a fine North Carolina team which went on to place second in the nation. record is All totaled. McCarthys mark (91), McCarthy is impressive. With an a year averaging 21 wins a season, but that average for McCarthy goes back further than just the last four seasons as a Wildcat Neil, as a head coach for six years on the high school level in California, record before Joining the college produced a coaching fraternity. He still holds the records at two schools for single season winning marks. In the history of St. Vincent High in Vallejo has 5 record stands alone. Opening a new school, St. Patricks, he put together a 264 year another mark that has never been bettered. During his high school tenure, be had more than just coaching duties to concern himself with. He aUo was involved in teaching and was Director of Athletics at both schools and Dean of Boys at St Vincent. A Californian by birth, Neil was graduated from St. Vincent's in 1957 where he later returned as a coach, teacher and administrator. After a stint in the Army where he played on a service basketball team and un toe Fort Bbm Boxing Title, he enrolled at hometown Vallejo Junior College where he was a busy man, to say the least. While at Vallejo, McCarthy was an honor sti.deht editor of the campus newspaper, a member c.f the Honor Society and a fixture oo the Doans list Somehow during that period be also found time to play some basketball and played it well enough to be named both years at school. Following graduation, Neil went to Cal where he again earned honors oo the basketbal court and in the classroom. He obtained a bachelor's degree in 1888 and subsequently obtained a master's from the same institution. Ills Master's Thesis, fawMentally, was concerned with the art of sheeting. Any eeaaectiea four-ye- ar 85-3- 8 20-ga- ch 124-5- 0 77-ye- ar ar 32-- Heavy-weig- ht all-leag- State-Sacramen- to free-thre- w between that study and the record-shatterin-g performances of the Wildcats from the charity strip h certainly no coincidence. In his four seasons, his teams have consistently led the Big Sky Conference in tree-thro- w percentage and have been over 79 per cent as a team the last four seasons. McCarthy left the ranks of high school coaches in 1971 to come to Weber State as chief assistant to then-coaGene Visscher. When Visscher resigned midway through the 1975 season, McCarthy was handed the reins of the program. He became the first coach at Weber to ever be given a multi-yecontract when be signed a three year pact following bis second year with ' the team. McCarthy is a respected member of the coaching brotherhood, and a serious student and teacher of the game He has had several published articles in national coaching magazines, has been a frequent limes and workshops, and has made participant two ips as a coach. One was to Bolivia to conduct a mr. i r of clinics; the most recent was with the Wildcats in the summer of 1978 to the Republic of China where they played several teams. . Ilr has been appelated to bo the District VII t r atd -- representative oa the lateraatioaal Basketball ContmHv e of the National Asseclatlsa of Basketball Coaches i.w the 1976-9- seesaa. It Is the sccead NABC committee be has served ea. McCarthy is slso oa the Pro Reds Coaches Advisory Board. A McCarthy coaching trademark are teams that play with intelligence, intensity and a scrambling defense and it is a sure guarantee that his teams wifi be in better physical condtUoo than their opponents. The formula has boon a good one for McCarthy and Ids teems they have set winning marks every year and created excitement for their fans as well. McCarthy-coadie- d teams at Weber State have set new attendance records each of the last four years and with all the excitement of the upcoming year, it w8l mat Kkdy be broken again. |