‘Excited for this new adventure’: Carla Berube transitions to Northwestern team amid program rebuild

After building one of the Ivy League’s most consistent programs at Princeton, Carla Berube will take on a new challenge at Northwestern, where she has been hired to lead a program in transition, after the outgoing head coach Joe McKeown announced in March 2025 that the 2025–26 season would be his last. 

Berube leaves Princeton after a six-season tenure in Old Nassau that included five Ivy League championships, five NCAA appearances, and two NCAA tournament wins. 

“It’s been a great four or five days that I’ve been here, just learning about the place, meeting the team, having individual meetings with them, learning about all the resources that are available to our student athletes, just meeting really incredible people that work here, that are alums of here,” Berube told The Daily Princetonian in a phone interview on April 2. 

“[I’m] really gonna miss Princeton and my team and the people there, but excited for this new adventure,” Berube said.

Berube becomes just the seventh head coach in Northwestern program history, since 1975, succeeding McKeown after his 18-year tenure.

“I would love to end my career here,” Berube said. “I would love nothing more than to just settle here and establish my roots here for my family. It’s a really incredible community, and excited for my family to move here and be a part of this greater Evanston area.”

Berube is tasked with reviving a program that hasn’t won more than nine games in a season since 2021–22. The Wildcats combined for just ten conference wins across the last four seasons, missing the conference tournament the past two seasons and not playing in the NCAA tournament since the 2020–21 season. 

“Being able to coach in this day and age of scholarships and revenue share and transfer portal, I thought it was a unique opportunity at a place that very much reminds me of all the great things of Princeton,” Berube said.

Those dynamics were foreign to Berube at Princeton, where Ivy League rules prohibit athletic scholarships and exclude programs from revenue sharing and pay-for-play structures. Furthermore, athletic transfers are rare, particularly at Princeton. 

“It’s like a pivot to how you go about things … but I don’t think it changes who I am from the core of what’s important to me and the importance of developing my student athlete,” Berube said.

The appeal of a school that prioritized both academics and athletics was “really important” for Berube when making the decision.

“I want to keep coaching these driven student-athletes that care about the balance of their college experience, that you could have the best of both worlds here: world-class education, and also high-level basketball, and you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other,” Berube said. 

It is unclear when Northwestern athletic director Mark Jackson reached out to Berube, but the final decision came shortly before the NCAA tournament game against Oklahoma State. Berube emphasized the need to make a quick decision given the timing of the transfer portal. 

“I wasn’t really looking [for a new opportunity], but this one came about, and it’s very much similar to Tufts and Princeton in terms of the student athletes that I’ll be coaching,” Berube said. Berube was head coach at Tufts before coming to Princeton.

When Jackson began the search for the next head coach, he identified three priorities: alignment with Northwestern’s culture, proven NCAA tournament experience, and a leader capable of navigating both an elite academic environment in the Big Ten. 

“Carla Berube delivers on all fronts,” Jackson wrote in a statement published by Northwestern athletics. “Equally as important, we found a leader with a rare combination of fierce competitiveness, humility and the ability to develop players and people with compassion and dedication.”

Berube has made the move to Evanston with two members of her Princeton staff. Tigers assistant coach Lauren Dillon will take on the role of associate head coach at Northwestern, while Lilly Paro will make the move, keeping her role as director of basketball operations. 

Both Dillon and Paro played at Tufts under Berube. Dillon was a part of Berube’s inaugural 2019–20 Princeton staff, while Paro joined prior to the 2021–22 season. 

“They’ve been just incredible players of mine, and then colleagues, and they work extremely hard,” Berube said of Dillon and Paro. “They’re passionate about the game and developing young women, and so that was really, really important to make sure they were on staff with me here.”

Roster-wise, Berube inherits a team in significant transition. Of the six players who averaged more than 11 minutes a game, Berube will retain only two: junior guard Casey Harter and sophomore guard Xamiya Walton. Three of the others have reached the end of their time on the team, while sophomore forward Tayla Thomas was one of two Wildcats to enter the portal. 

As of Monday, April 13, Berube has already seen two guards commit to the Wildcats: Syracuse first-year guard Camdyn Nelson and Kentucky sophomore guard Lexi Blue. This may suggest that standout senior guard Madison St. Rose, who has exhausted her Ivy eligibility, may not be reuniting with Berube in Evanston. 

McKeown noted before retiring that the program had not been particularly active in NIL. Since Jackson’s tenure beginning as athletic director in 2024, he has moved to restructure the athletic department, establishing a chief revenue officer and a chief communications and branding officer — public signals of a changing posture

According to USA Today, Berube will have a salary of approximately $800,000, with $1 million in revenue-sharing resources annually for roster construction.

However, Berube hopes not to be taking “tons of players every year” from the portal.

“I want my players to want to be here for four years, and to want to be developed and want this Northwestern experience. That’s what I’ve been coaching at Princeton and at Tufts, and I hope to continue to do that,” Berube said.

At Northwestern, Berube hopes to apply the defensive blueprint of “Get Stops” to the Big Ten.

“I love that side of the game,” she said. “We’ve got to be able to defend, we need some versatility, some length, some lateral quickness, some rim protection. The defense part is going to be key moving forward.”

She credits legendary University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma for many of her coaching traits. Berube played under Auriemma for four seasons, finishing with a record of 132–8 and winning the 1995 national title as a sophomore.

For now, Berube’s immediate focus remains on the players already in Evanston.

“The number one priority is getting to know our players, setting the standard, talking about what championship mentality is, getting on the court with them, and getting to work,” Berube said, referencing the portal and the next recruiting class as other priorities. 

As for what success looks like at season’s end, Berube isn’t measuring it in wins and losses alone.

“I think success is that we are competing hard every single day, we’re getting better every single day… and that we’re finding a lot of joy as we play connected basketball for Northwestern across our chests. And hopefully, as the program grows, we are competing for championships.”

Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor emeritus and senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif. and typically covers breaking news and profiles. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.

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