Rivals Corey Evans looks at how NU built its first tournament team through recruiting.
How Collins built NU
How Collins built NU
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Solid piece Lou.
A couple comments. For NU to be dancing in year four one of two things had to happen. Either the staff had to bring in a high four star or low five star type player(s). Or, a couple of the recruits had to take a step up in class. It says a considerable amount about the staff and the players that it was the latter that happened.
Related to that is the fact that under the current staff, NU does not recruit players who cannot compete at a high level in the Big Ten. Which makes it much, much tougher to find and sign recruits. A little scary to the faithful when you only have one recruit signed in March, but I'd argue a necessary approach if the objective is to sustain a place in the top half of the conference.
Not discussed much is that Collins is a hard ***. I remember his first year when he yelled at a Welsh Ryan time keeper to "get your head out of your ***" after a miscue that could have costs the Cats the game. It's all the small stuff that make the difference when you're elevating a program.
And, I think, the fifth recruit that you mentioned found out that Collins is a hard ***. He had two choices, work harder than he's ever worked before and show Collins he was wrong. Or choose to look for another situation. Let's all be glad that the latter choice includes an NU degree.
There's another player on the roster who faced the same sort of choice. He was third-team All Big Ten this year and would have been first or second if he didn't get sick.
Thanks for the comments. I want to point out, however, that Rivals' Corey Evans wrote this story. I did not.