Margaret McKeon joined NJIT women's basketball as head coach in July 2007, bringing with her a deep passion for teaching basketball and a proven record of having transformed a struggling program into an NCAA Division I Tournament qualifier.
Her abilities were evident almost immediately in her first preseason practices at NJIT and it carried over into the season with a high-energy playing style and an attitude that made the Highlanders a threat for all 40 minutes, no matter what the score.
At first, however, wins were hard to come by, as McKeon’s first NJIT team opened at 2-10. But the new approach began to bear fruit in early January and the Highlanders went 8-9 the rest of the way, including a 2-1 record in the 2008 national Independent Division I Tournament.
Their final record of 10-19, more than doubled the win total from NJIT’s first season of Division I competition (4-24 overall, 3-23 against Division I opponents in 2006-07).
The six-win improvement from one year to the next was the second-best in the history of the program, which began play in 1986-87.
In McKeon’s third season at the helm of the Highlanders, they won 11 games in 2009-10, a new high for the fledgling Division I program.
A hallmark of her tenure at NJIT has been non-conference scheduling that tests the team against a high level of competition and against institutions renowned in the field of athletics and academics. Among the opponents faced by the Highlanders on McKeon’s watch are teams from the Ivy League, Patriot League, Big East, ACC, Atlantic 10, Big 10, and Big 12, to name a few.
"What I love to do is teach," said McKeon before her first season leading NJIT's fortunes. "I have a passion for the game and my goal is to help young women not only play the game, but grow as people. There are a lot of life lessons for them and for me."
McKeon's track record includes five NCAA Division I postseason tournament appearances in her years as an assistant coach and head coach.
"I am very happy to be back in the tri-state area," said McKeon, a native of Queens, NY, where she was a star player in high school and college. "And I am very excited for this opportunity to build a Division I program from the ground up.
"The vision of Dr. (Robert) Altenkirch (former NJIT President) and Dr. (Joel) Bloom (Interim President) to move the entire athletic program forward is the reason I became interested in this job. NJIT already has a reputation for academic excellence and I look forward to working with (Director of Athletics) Lenny Kaplan and his staff to develop a competitive Division I program that will attract the types of student-athletes who are eager to excel in the classroom, as well as on the court."
Expanding on the idea of academic achievement at a school such as NJIT translating on the basketball floor, McKeon said: “(The players) strive to be excellent in the classroom and when they come onto the court, that’s what they expect of themselves. If you can give them a purpose—why we are doing it and this is the end result--they believe they will strive to succeed in basketball, too. They live by that.”
In five years as head coach at Boston University (1999-2004), McKeon transformed the Terriers from a team with five wins the season before her arrival to one that earned a spot in the NCAA Division I Tournament by her fourth season and was only a game short of repeating as America East Conference champion the following year.
Before her years as head coach at BU, McKeon was assistant and then associate head coach at George Washington from 1995 to 1999, during which time GW posted a combined record of 93-31. In her four seasons on the staff, the Colonials went to the NCAAs three times, were ranked 10th in the nation and advanced to the Division I tournament's Elite Eight in 1996-97.
At Boston University, McKeon took over a program that was established, but had failed to achieve double-figure wins totals in each of its previous three seasons, including a 5-22 record the year before she was named head coach. In her first year (1999-00) the Terriers were 8-21, but they moved upward quickly, reaching the 17-win mark in her third season. That 17-11 record in 2001-02 was BU's first winning record in seven years. In the 2002-03 NCAA season, the Terriers won the America East Conference championship and advanced to face UConn in the NCAAs.
The 2003-04 season was her biggest triumph at BU when the Terriers chalked up a 19-11 overall record and a second straight spot in the America East postseason championship game.
Overall, her Boston University teams won 70 games in five seasons, including a combined 52-37 record the last three seasons.
The Terriers’ steady overall improvement was apparent in conference play, as well. McKeon's teams went from 3-15 in conference her first year to 10-6 by her third year. Her America East Conference regular season record over her last three seasons at BU was 32-18, with postseason championship game appearances the last two seasons.
In her four seasons as an assistant coach at George Washington, the Colonials won three Atlantic 10 Conference championships, advancing to the NCAA Tournament all three times. GW ranked 10th nationally and reached the tournament's Elite Eight in 1996-97 and the Colonials advanced to the second round two other times, including 1995-96, when they finished 18th in the final national poll.
Earlier, at the University of Houston, she was part of a staff that recruited what one service rated as the 10th best in the nation in 1994. In her first year as a college coach, McKeon was on the staff for the 1991-92 Arizona State squad that reached the NCAAs. The Sun Devils' combined record in her two seasons there was 37-19, playing in the Pacific 10, one of the nation's elite women's basketball conferences.
McKeon is a 1991 graduate of St. John's University in Queens, NY, earning a BA in athletic administration.
A collegiate star at both St. John's and at Oklahoma, she was all-Big East for St. John's, setting a conference single-game assists record that still stands, with 18 against Georgetown on January 16, 1991. She also starred at Oklahoma, earning all-conference honorable mention.
Before college, she starred at Christ the King Regional High School in Queens, a school renowned for its powerhouse girls' basketball program that has produced such talent as WNBA players Sue Bird and Chamique Holdsclaw. Between high school and college, she coached the New York Liberty Belles AAU Basketball Club, the most successful girls AAU program in the Northeast.
A member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association since 1991, McKeon was a speaker at two WBCA national conventions.
She resides in Newark.
