Gragg is an idiot and not serving NU well. Its not that he should fire Collins. Its that if he is going to keep him, then give him his full support. Its the ultimate weasel approach to say well I am keeping you, but you are hanging by a thread. Bad for the team, bad for NU, undermines Collins and makes his job harder. No class Gragg. Who would want to work for him in the future at NU. So bad
Collins staying, per Gragg
- Thread starter peatymeanis
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Eh, it was a no win situation once the school made clear that the funds weren’t there for a buyout. If Gragg gives his full support, it just looks disingenuous as everyone with eyes can see there’s serious problems. You’re not fooling any recruits or coaches who want to negative recruit against you. Any honest statement has to reckon with the underperformance of the last 5 years, and that basically gets you to a statement that is similar to what Gragg put out today.
CCC has been here forever and been given a fair chance, as well as rewarded handsomely for his one successful year. I doubt any candidates would think he’s been treated unfairly here by Gragg.
He needs to look outside "the family" and hire some assistants who will shake things up. Something along the lines of Martelli at Michigan, or Sadler at Nebraska, along with a young, aggressive assistant who is hungry would be ideal.
Edit: I have no idea what Bruce Weber's plans are, but NU could be a soft landing for a couple years, particularly if he doesn't generate much interest out on the market.
Nance appeared to endorse Collins, for what it’s worth.
If everyone returns because of him, it’s not the end of the world to give him one more shot.
If everyone returns because of him, it’s not the end of the world to give him one more shot.
By now Gragg has probably understood he has a lousy basketball coach.
While it could be construed as a political statement, if Gragg announced to the world he fully trusts CC, he would be feeling he looks like a fool, completely out of touch with reality.
Just to look even more foolish when, inevitably, he ends up firing him.
While it could be construed as a political statement, if Gragg announced to the world he fully trusts CC, he would be feeling he looks like a fool, completely out of touch with reality.
Just to look even more foolish when, inevitably, he ends up firing him.
Yes, there are Xs and Os issues, but college basketball is becoming more and more about getting old and staying old. NU needs to find a way to embrace that reality while fulfilling its mission academically.
I mentioned in another thread, but the first person on my list to go would be Borovich. Does anyone know what his responsibilities are and what he has brought to the team?
Yeah, I don't understand the criticism of Gragg on this thread. Admittedly, the "Collins must go" crowd (including me) have been more vocal than everyone else, except for the "admissions must die" group. Nevertheless, it is the way of the world in college sports. AD's et al are publicly acknowledging that things must improve, and the multi-millionaire coaches either perform or leave. Trev Alberts said something along the lines of 'Scott Frost placed a big bet on himself'.
The emphasis needs to be on Collins. I don't see any way how he can recover, but if he really believes his own blather that we are on the right trajectory because his veteran team won a few non-Nebraska B1G games, it's hopeless. It would be like if Fitz really believes JON did a fine job and no changes are needed...
No matter what happens, the 2023-24 season is a teardown. (Berry, Nicholson Roper, Barnhizer, Simmons, Hunger are the current scholarship players from that team. They might score 40ppg.)
It’s time for a restart.
I had previously come to the opinion that next year is a good Last Hurrah — let’s see if Boo and Audige and Young can make a leap. But, even if they do, there won’t be any new game-breaking talent coming in — there’s too much doubt for any top recruits to commit.
(And, as exciting as the transfer portal is, the core of every good team is still the guys they signed out of high school.)
NU would be better off with a new coach now — see what he can turn Boo’s ‘23 club into, sure, but also lay the groundwork for his own recruits ASAP.
As it stands, the worst possible outcome for NU in ‘23 would be to make the NCAA tourney under CCC, because that would mean a four-year extension. Should’ve cut bait Friday.
Does anyone really have any strong feelings about the competency of any of our assistants?
I mean, how are people's feelings formed about these people we never hear from? Soundbites from the head coach and commentators? Is there anything else?
For years it has been the Brian James does a great job with bigs. 100% tied to emotions related to the fact that Pardon was very good for us. He also has a big playbook! Everything about James comes from the mouth of CC or commentators. And commentators, most times, are doing nothing more than regurgitating what they heard from Collins.
Borovich and Battle? Can we even remotely have any idea what they are worth? I don't know how that's even possible.
Personally I have zero inclination to believe any of our assistants is capable. Or not. I don't know. As it is, all I have to go by is what talking heads say on TV. And that's worth close to nothing.
Put a Martineli type on the bench and I will start believing someone is trying to save Collins from himself.
Here's $0.02 about the competency, or lack of it, of our assistants, in addition to that of our coach.
Zone Defense
2019
1-3-1 for 2 or 3 games. Ryan Young in the back of the zone. Not running to corners. What 1-3-1 does not imply the player in the back running to the corner? If that is left to the players on the side of the zone you will have a gaping hole in the middle. No wonder it blew up after it miraculously worked against Providence.
2020
2-3 for probably most of the league games. Spencer looking like a fool running from the ball handler starting the offense at the top of the 3 point line to covering the wing. No one directing which of the two front guys stepped up to the ball handler. Problem with this is that if the front guy who steps up is on the side overloaded with 3 players the zone is out of whack and you have one of the back guys covering none. While another is trying to cover to. Easily solved by one of the back guys directing the two in front. Our go to? Spencer running like a fool trying to cover everyone
2021
3-2 here and there. Against Nebraska, after it disrupted and caught them off guard, Simmons looks a bit like Spencer did, covering the ball on top while chasing the ball after it moves. Because the adjustment of the other guys is very poor.
I give these example, even if they are obviously hard to visualize, to illustrate how skeptical I am that any of our coaches really know what they are doing. I saw some of these examples live, much easier to see than on TV. A defensive movement in any of these zones that had no routines, or rules. Often looked more like a group of friends at the Y.
What are these guys practicing? Are they going through these motions and teaching the players who guards who when the ball moves? Do any of our coaches even know zone principles? Or are they just telling the players, go there, that's your area, cover it, like they are some rec league coach? If they don't feel comfortable with zone principles, are they researching them?
I know this is all very hard to visualize, but what we did in every zone in the last 3 years is the stuff of amateurs. Of people who are curious and like basketball. Not of pros who make a living out of teaching and coaching it.
Zone Defense
2019
1-3-1 for 2 or 3 games. Ryan Young in the back of the zone. Not running to corners. What 1-3-1 does not imply the player in the back running to the corner? If that is left to the players on the side of the zone you will have a gaping hole in the middle. No wonder it blew up after it miraculously worked against Providence.
2020
2-3 for probably most of the league games. Spencer looking like a fool running from the ball handler starting the offense at the top of the 3 point line to covering the wing. No one directing which of the two front guys stepped up to the ball handler. Problem with this is that if the front guy who steps up is on the side overloaded with 3 players the zone is out of whack and you have one of the back guys covering none. While another is trying to cover to. Easily solved by one of the back guys directing the two in front. Our go to? Spencer running like a fool trying to cover everyone
2021
3-2 here and there. Against Nebraska, after it disrupted and caught them off guard, Simmons looks a bit like Spencer did, covering the ball on top while chasing the ball after it moves. Because the adjustment of the other guys is very poor.
I give these example, even if they are obviously hard to visualize, to illustrate how skeptical I am that any of our coaches really know what they are doing. I saw some of these examples live, much easier to see than on TV. A defensive movement in any of these zones that had no routines, or rules. Often looked more like a group of friends at the Y.
What are these guys practicing? Are they going through these motions and teaching the players who guards who when the ball moves? Do any of our coaches even know zone principles? Or are they just telling the players, go there, that's your area, cover it, like they are some rec league coach? If they don't feel comfortable with zone principles, are they researching them?
I know this is all very hard to visualize, but what we did in every zone in the last 3 years is the stuff of amateurs. Of people who are curious and like basketball. Not of pros who make a living out of teaching and coaching it.
I disagree with this on many levels. 1) Going to the NCAA should always be a good thing. If we have to be the seven-year locust, it's better than being the never-year locust 2) With the team coming back, it would take nothing short of a miracle for us to make the tourney. If he got us there, he'd deserve an extension, albeit not a Dr. Jim extension. 3) I suppose there is a > 0% chance that PBS/PBJ come down for a 'rehab' year, leading us to the tourney, and...never mind. Disregard #3. But I stand by the other 2
Transfers, transfers, transfers are the going thing in college hoops right now. Just check the rosters of NCAA tourney teams. They are full of them. Can Collins attract a couple of good ones? And will he be allowed some leeway to do so?
I think Collins' return and apparent "probation" is more likely a catalyst for players to transfer out, rather than to stick around. Each case will be different, I suppose, but it feels like this could go in several directions.
Even if everybody returns, we need a power forward. We only have Beran and a freshman.
We need a point guard. Buie can play the position, but he needs a backup and he's really better as the shooting guard.
Essentially, we have two centers, who play a style Collins hates. He'll find a way not to use them.
We have Robbie Beran, who plays a style Collins loves. He'll play all the time.
We have Buie and 4 shooting guards / undersized small forwards. Audige, Berry, Roper, Simmons.
Even if everybody returns, we need a power forward. We only have Beran and a freshman.
We need a point guard. Buie can play the position, but he needs a backup and he's really better as the shooting guard.
Essentially, we have two centers, who play a style Collins hates. He'll find a way not to use them.
We have Robbie Beran, who plays a style Collins loves. He'll play all the time.
We have Buie and 4 shooting guards / undersized small forwards. Audige, Berry, Roper, Simmons.
I wonder if "leeway" was part of the conversation Gragg and Collins had..........that would certainly be a "change" Gragg insisted upon......
What the heck, making the tourney will be a bad thing? Isn't that the goal, having a team competitive enough to make the tourney? I mean, I get it if your goal is getting rid of Collins regardless anything else, but shouldn't we be happy if he manages to deliver again?
Gragg's statement seems a success for a public-facing political position. Based on this thread anyway, people can read whatever they want into it and keep going forward with what they had already decided were the facts. Meanwhile, all he said was he'd met with Collins and told him to do better next year.
Hopefully it was strongly suggested that he improve his staff since the current AC’s can’t seem to help with CC’s shortcomings
Pretty much as expected. I think we all knew due to the $$ involved the odds were very very high that CC would be back. Sounds like Gragg put him on notice that improvement is expected. I’d say CC has some work to do or next offseason he will be looking for a new job.
Believe I saw somewhere that when Frank Martin was fired at South Carolina that CC is now the only coach at a top 6 conf job that hasn’t made the NCAA tourney in 5 years…
Believe I saw somewhere that when Frank Martin was fired at South Carolina that CC is now the only coach at a top 6 conf job that hasn’t made the NCAA tourney in 5 years…
I haven’t seen any evidence to say that they can help CC overcome his shortcomings. If they are doing good jobs then CC must be even worse than most of us imagine. Just feels like this staff needs a shakeup at a minimum
I think it's worse than that. He's the only one with a losing record every year.
These are the key questions. In the world of no transfer restrictions and NIL, every player is a one-year player anyway. You could just as easily argue the sense of urgency becomes a motivator for everyone this off-season. I don’t have high expectations for next year but I think this statement will have little to do with the eventual result.
That's not the point. If they were concerned about recruiting, they would have fired CC.
Right? It's not like he's setting the world on fire. He is, however, setting the program aflame
Meh. If he could fire him, he would have done so, as Collins has earned it. But the buyout is too high, so the best Gragg can do is to say "win, or else" which signals that he should be capable of hiring a new coach after another crappy season. I doubt he has much confidence in CCC, so why should he proclaim it now only to reverse course in 12 months? That would make him look dumb.
Here are the necessary measures for CCC:
1. Bring back PBJ and hopefully entice junior to join the show
2. Hire PWB as analytics advisor
3. Run the offense through MN in the post
Sadler is a GREAT Xs-and-Os coach. He took UTEP to the NCAA Tournament (with players he inherited from Billy Gillispie), he took Nebraska to the NIT in half his seasons there (which isn't normally impressive, but this is Nebraska basketball), and he took over an absolute dumpster fire at Southern Miss, which was crippled by sanctions, and their record improved year over year for the five seasons he was there.
I think he's an average recruiter, so I'm not sure he'd be able to bring the types of players to NU to make an immediate impact, but give him this season's team and he would have made the most out of them.
And that's why it would be great to also hire and young assistant willing to hustle. In situations like this, you tell one or both of the youngest current assistants that it is time to break away from the NU nest for awhile and make a name for themselves at a new program, with the possibility of coming back later.
Fire the coach? Get better players? Drop out of B1G? Make it a club sport?
Maybe they will ask me to join a committee or something
If I am a player, so am I. And hell no, if I am being recruiting -- unless I have no other options available to me.
Oh come on, we all know Matt Nicholson is the reason we didn't make the tournament.
Turns out, sitting an athletic 7 footer on the bench and telling him to shoot imaginary pistols at the sky is not the way to outrebound your opponent.
Who knew?
@PurpleWhiteBoy , our board’s resident plus-minus regurgitator.
I was sarcastic, but I’m pretty sure Hungry is serious.
Are you kidding me? The worst case scenario is to make the tourney next year? That is ridiculous. I will take the worst case scenario, since it is the best case scenario in NU history.
Just dumb. Dead man walking takes longer to recover from than cutting bait. This board will be brutal the next 12 months.