Absolutely..Chris Collins is a good guy with his head on straight. To have weathered all the crap that has come his way, the tough losses, guys leaving, fan base calling for his firing. then you watch this interview and you get the mark of the man. Absolutely worth the watch if you can find it...you will feel pretty darn proud of your coach.....and now maybe you can start worrying about CC going to ND
Chris Collins is our coach
- Thread starter TheC
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If they lose the rest, it doesn't make any difference if they get into the tournement, they won't go past the first round. They need to keep winning, and I bet they will win at least three more of the regular season.
The Jim Harbaugh of B1G basketball. (Meant in a complimentary way, even though I despise Hairball)
I don’t think it was a job security thing. Nobody likes to read that they suck at their job. Particularly when the criticism comes from folks you think know almost nothing about college basketball. The vast majority of supporters of the program were pretty vocal that Collins was a bad coach and this year’s team was going to suck. I am sure that is tough to read/hear when you are the only coach to lead us to the tournament.
Seems that the difference between this team and the previous, miserable 5 seasons is that the Cats have gotten back to the defense-first philosophy that drove the (1st) Tourney team.
Another thing being that CC has seemingly gotten over his over-infatuation w/ the stretch-4 (problem being that his stretch-4s weren't able to shoot w/ much consistency), w/ the team, once again, driven by guard play.
CC is deserving of an extension, but need to see some level of consistency of making the post-season.
Think (out of a 4 yr recruiting cycle) making the Tourney once and the NIT twice is pretty reasonable, with one year missing out due to bad luck w/ injuries or a rebuild.
One thing that is a little alarming is why it took so long for Boo and Audige to decide that it was in their and the teams' interest to play together.
The (1st) Tourney team wasn't great offensively, but they were more balanced (if a starter or 2 didn't have shots falling, there were others who could pick up the slack; and for the players who didn't have the shooting touch for that game, they contributed in other ways).
This team has a lot of grit which shows up on how they play D, but man, imagine if they had a Taphorn type player (someone who could come off the bench and hit a few key 3s).
Another thing being that CC has seemingly gotten over his over-infatuation w/ the stretch-4 (problem being that his stretch-4s weren't able to shoot w/ much consistency), w/ the team, once again, driven by guard play.
CC is deserving of an extension, but need to see some level of consistency of making the post-season.
Think (out of a 4 yr recruiting cycle) making the Tourney once and the NIT twice is pretty reasonable, with one year missing out due to bad luck w/ injuries or a rebuild.
One thing that is a little alarming is why it took so long for Boo and Audige to decide that it was in their and the teams' interest to play together.
The (1st) Tourney team wasn't great offensively, but they were more balanced (if a starter or 2 didn't have shots falling, there were others who could pick up the slack; and for the players who didn't have the shooting touch for that game, they contributed in other ways).
This team has a lot of grit which shows up on how they play D, but man, imagine if they had a Taphorn type player (someone who could come off the bench and hit a few key 3s).
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Watching that clip brought back memories of Coach Collins being introduced to the fanbase attending the pregame reception at our opening football game of the year in Berkely when we played and beat CAL:
Another difference is the departure of the two seniors that transferred out. Their departures allowed CCC the ability to re-emphasis the defense first mentality. Not sure we are able to pull it off with a couple of soft players like Nance and Young still on the roster.
There’s no doubt that everyone up and down the roster is better defensively this season. There’s been a change in focus.
Nance was our best player last season. No question about that. However, I think Boo and Chase deferred to Pete too much and now they understand they BOTH have to play well for NU to beat a good team. I think Chase continuing to fire it up after such a poor shooting first 35 minutes wouldn’t have happened last year and we would have deferred to Pete or even RY on the offensive end. Fact is, for the most part those two struggled in crunch time.
Not to rehash the old arguments, but many of us pointed out defense was not exactly Pete and RY’s forte. I wouldn’t necessarily call them soft, but as my HS Coach used to say “ you can’t fight Mother Nature”.
No doubt. That's 100% true.
But here's another difference: there's a 5 playing 5, instead of a pretend one.
And my son is on the basketball team at GV. We were just there. Had a wonderful breakfast at The Omelette in GR.
Nance is actually a good defender. He’s an excellent help defender and a good shot blocker. His length really bothers people on that end of the floor. He’s just not a good defender at the 5. Doesn’t have the strength to hold his position. Although his length does help him recover at times.
Nance was just forced into the 5 role due to a defensive first coach trying to play the best defensive option at the 5.
The biggest difference is your first point, top dogs. Clearly the Buie and Audige show. Buie ran the offense last year and did it well but this year there’s a different mentality. The whole team knows their roles. They are bought in. It’s fun to watch.
Agreed. And we easily could have won 10 games in the conference last year. We lost a few close games because we missed free throws (mainly Nance) at the end of games. And Audige is much, much better this year. The margin for victory was very slim last year (like this year). A healthy and productive Audige would have made a big difference.
CCC would have known the situation and no one is saying they should not have had "the talk". That said don't think it should have been made public. I think the season still happens without it being made publicI agree with this. I’ve stated that multiple times.
Yet, who knows if this weird *** season happens without it.
They can arrange to talk but I doubt there would be any serious discussion till after the season
Gragg would be smart to lock him in with a generous extension. If we win one or two games at the NCAA's CC will be a hot commodity and no doubt Notre Dame (not all that far from Chicago) and some others will be pursuing him.
That is likely a conversation for after the season. Trying to do it now would be a distraction.
The ideas you are putting forward as obvious strike me as crazy talk.
If Collins gets an offer that makes him want to leave Northwestern, I would be very happy for him.
Ten years is a long time for many coaches. He has regained a ton of credibility and earned an extension if we finish the job for a bid. But he has a big rebuild ahead after Buie and Audige leave. So a fresh start might also make sense for everyone involved.
I disagree with every sentence.
- Ten years is not long to become a very successful head coach.
- He didn’t need to regain credibility if you were noticing we were increasingly competitive in the recent down years, despite Audige’s injuries too.
- The only reason we would not earn a bid now is catastrophic injuries; he’s shown his stuff regardless.
- Buie and Audige may not leave.
- Not worth even discussing this take…
Maybe BB will get there the next or the following season, but he's shooting at a .268 pace behind the arc.
Tap not only shot .470 during the Tourney season, but in the 2 prior seasons, at a .500 and .403 clip.
Could have used a Tap-like player down the stretch (would have saved some wear and tear on all of our hearts).
Now, imagine if this team had a Shurna-like player (but that would be asking too much).
It does have a Shurna-like player, but Martinelli is going to need a year or two to step into that role
Martinelli is going to be awesome. That floater is nasty.It does have a Shurna-like player, but Martinelli is going to need a year or two to step into that role