Bill Lewit won a national championship as a junior college head coach and has predictably made tremendous impact on the Northwestern State program as the Demons have re-emerged as a nationally relevant mid-major during his first seven seasons on Mike McConathy’s staff.
In just his second season, Lewit helped the Demons reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament. NSU led the nation in scoring during the regular season (83.3 ppg), and finished second in that stat, and sixth (9.8 pg) in steals. The Demons went 23-9, the second-best win total in a century of basketball at NSU, winning the Southland Conference Tournament.
The resulting NCAA Tournament berth was extra special for Lewit when the Demons drew the Florida Gators in a second-round matchup, and then battled nose-for-nose into the middle of the second half before Billy Donovan’s powerhouse squad pulled away. Lewit’s dad, who passed away in the summer of 2017, and Donovan’s father grew up together in Rockville Center, N.Y., and Billy’s uncle, Don Sullivan, was the best man in Lewit’s parents’ wedding.
Despite significant graduation departures, the 2013-14 Demons made their own mark. The Demons Hoop Squad blew out Auburn 111-92 on the road and was again among NCAA Top 10 leaders in scoring, steals and blocked shots, and took eventual Southland champ Stephen F. Austin down to the wire twice.
The 2014-15 Demons captured the national scoring championship, averaging 84 points per game and extending Northwestern State’s history of high-scoring squads. NSU returned to the postseason after a one-year absence, garnering a berth in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Despite going without dynamic point guard Jalan West, NSU was in the national spotlight in 2015-17 chiefly due to the remarkable scoring and shooting of 2017 senior Zeek Woodley. When Woodley returned from a 14-game absence due to a broken wrist, the 2016-17 Demons won their last three games, ending a five-year, 45-game homecourt Southland Conference win streak by SFA before beating eventual league champion and NCAA Tournament entry New Orleans.
Lewit’s deeply insightful scouting reports, bench acumen, and player development are vital elements of Demon basketball. His breakdowns of practice and game video results in steady improvement by the NSU players, who regularly make their way up the aisle on the team bus on road trips to sit with Lewit and glean his precise observations and video breakdowns on their individual games.
His impact has been immense as well in social development, academic goal setting, and expanding NSU’s recruitment base. His contributions helped the Demon program earn two NCAA academic plaudits in 2014 – national public recognition in May for ranking among the country’s top 10 percent on the Academic Progress Rate study, and then in October, No. 1 rankings in the Southland Conference and among Louisiana’s public institutions (again) on the NCAA Graduation Success Rate with a near-perfect 98 percent.
Yet in his understated way, Lewit says he is getting the better part of the deal as a Demon basketball family member.
“I am truly blessed to be an assistant coach on Coach McConathy’s staff,” Lewit said. “He is a proven winner who has built a very special basketball program, and most importantly empowers his staff and players to perform on and off the court with the same championship qualities he possesses. I know, just like all the players and coaches before me, I am better because of my experience with him.”
Before coming to NSU, Lewit spent the previous two years at the University of New Orleans, where he was associate head coach while the Privateers were in the Sun Belt Conference.
Like McConathy did at Bossier Parish Community College, Lewit built a perennial junior college national power at Cecil College in Maryland.
Lewit’s 2005-06 team won a national championship, going 33-2. He guided the team to the No. 1 spot in the final regular season polls three times, and top-7 finishes in each of his final 11 seasons. The 2006 team was the first team in NCJAA history to start as the No. 1 ranked team at the start of the season, end as the No. 1 ranked team in the final regular season poll, and go on to win the national title.
Lewit earned the National NJCAA Coach of the Year award in 2006. He maintained 100 percent eligibility for his players across his 14 years and over 90 percent graduation of his sophomores.
Additionally, Lewit’s Cecil teams won six Maryland JUCO regular-season conference championships, five Maryland JUCO State Tournament Championships, six Region Championships, and 354 games. He was selected conference and region Coach of the Year a combined 15 times.
Even before coaching, sports and competition had always been a big driving force for Lewit. He was a football and basketball standout from 1987-91 at Salisbury University (Md.). In his senior season (1990-91), he served as the football team captain, led the team in receptions and receiving yards, held the basketball team’s highest free throw and 3-point shooting percentage, and won the overall Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award.
To this day, Lewit is still the only athlete at Salisbury to earn four varsity letters in both football and basketball. One of his biggest collegiate highlights was when he recorded 17 points, five rebounds and four assists in the conference championship game to help lead Salisbury to an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Lewit earned a Bachelor’s in Communications in 1991, and Master’s in Education/Counseling in 1993, both from Salisbury.
In high school, Lewit earned a combined nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball at Red Bank Regional HS (N.J.). As a senior, he was named to the all-county team in all three sports.
Some of his biggest high school accolades were winning three division titles in basketball, being selected for the Vince Lombardi Rock and Granite award as one of Monmouth County’s elite football players, and being honored as Red Bank Regional’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete in 1987.
Furthermore, Lewit became the youngest Red Bank Regional Alumni to be inducted into the Red Bank Regional Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame in April 2010.
Lewit is an avid New York sports fan and roots for the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders, and is very knowledgeable on the Mets and Jets. He enjoys sports trivia and is a voracious eater when not on the GM Diet.
His basketball teammate at Salisbury, Russell Springmann, is an assistant coach at Oral Roberts.
One of Lewit’s college football teammates, Dan Quinn, is the head coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
Jareem Dowling, one of Lewit’s athletes and former assistants at Cecil, is an assistant coach at North Texas.
Lewit is the son of the late Bob and his devoted wife, Maureen Lewit. His mother and two brothers, Bob Jr. and Greg, live in New Jersey. His grandmother, Angela Lewit, currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
His family has always been his biggest inspiration in life as they stressed Catholic faith, family, education, athletics, work ethic and serving others.
