I fully understand that. I’m just saying you’ve been previously optimistic of a coach with less achievements at this point in his tenure. I think we should give him through season 8. If we’re still a mess, I’m all for a change.
NU is 2-12 since first Illinois game; Illini are 7-7
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
I fully understand that. I’m just saying you’ve been previously optimistic of a coach with less achievements at this point in his tenure. I think we should give him through season 8. If we’re still a mess, I’m all for a change.
FWIW, I'm not saying I want a change now. I'm just disappointed by the lack of progress after 6 years. He needs to do a better job with all that has been given him.
Not to put the cart ahead of the horse, but if Jim Phillips ends up becoming Big Ten commissioner, I would be very concerned about Collins' job security after another expected down year in 19-20.
This season was gonna be awful as soon as they couldn’t shove Vassar off the ledge successfully. They knew he was a mistake and handled it poorly. Then they tried to turn Brown, a pure scorer, into a playmaker and predictably failed again. I would be surprised if the coaches didn’t think this would happen. I do think last year’s collapse was a lot more surprising to them.
Come on guys. We will be good once Nance and Kopp mature. Be patient.
I wonder if Fitz becomes AD or what happens. Seems like Jim and Morty will depart at a similar juncture. This might result in a continuance of a relative golden age of NU athletics or it could be really, really bad. You just don’t find presidents and ADs on the same wavelength with a mutual affection of athletics like this at every school.
seems like that will be us next year (with 7 soph and freshmen) - so wouldn't both programs be moving in the same direction?
Team seemed to lose most of their confidence when conference play started off poorly with some tough losses. My viewpoint this wasn't a tourney team anyway, but I didn't expect this finish either.
I think the Fighting Undies should be a tourney team in 2020 barring off season defections or Ayo actually turning Pro. I am not sold on them be Big Ten contenders next year as I still see a Lot of potential holes. Maybe the ballyhooed incoming big men can be the answer, but they are Freshman. Consistently will be the key and they won’t be able to sneak up on people.As an Illini, I have to agree with you.
Though I was impressed that NW still played hard last night, good sign that Collins hasn't lost the team. I don't pay a ton of attention to your recruiting, but it seems like he's having similar issues to Groce. Decent recruiting, but missing out on getting some PG skills on the team. Seems like losing the Lathon kid (and the Vassar stuff) has really damaged the trajectory of the program. There seems to be some decent talent otherwise. But other than maybe Nebraska, it seems like the rest of the bottom half of the Big Ten is getting better for next year.
For the Illini, I'm encouraged but still have a number of concerns with Underwood. I need to see an off-season without another mass exodus of players. I expect a couple that are known (Higgs and probably Nichols), but we can't have another 2-3 guys leave. I expect Ayo will put his name in for the draft, but am guessing the feedback he gets will have him back for another season. Going along with that, trying to fill 3-5 spots every spring is not a long term recipe for success even though we did get a couple of nice additions last spring. And I"m not a huge fan of his defense, though it can be effective at times and against some teams, I don't think it's going to work to get back to contending for titles in this league.
I won't miss Law, he really plays hard and has always had a huge chip on his shoulder to play against Illinois. Pardon, too for that matter.
As far as the Cats, I see NU struggling next year. I can see the Cats next year being similar to the Fighting Undies this year. A very slow start, an embarrassing loss or two and then some noticeable progress in the second half of the year where NU can sneak up on teams. Unfortunately, I think that is the best NU can hope for next year.
We have eleven guys coming back including Falzon, who in my opinion is at best a maybe. That would leave two or three fifth year guys depending on Falzon’s status. I think they go for another freshman, maybe to redshirt him if he is big man. Every year there seems to be more guys around than these recruiting sites know about. Think about it in the past we, under Carmody, went to Canada (Hachad) or Europe (Vukusic and others). It seems the European players are now going to high school over here. I don’t think you want more than one fifth year guy. We’ll see what happens. I think the next few months will be interesting.
Yes. If Dr. Jim leaves then there should be no way a new AD is hired who doesn't have a little list of replacement HC coaches for basketball (just like Dr. Jim did) and he will want his own guy in there (just like Dr. Jim did).
Before you start canning the coach and bring some Ivy League upstart in to replace him, I would get a hold of the contract to find out what the buyout is. I’m sure if you let Collins go you be able to bring some hot shot from the Big East or ACC in no time flat. You know with Northwestern’s set program for allowing only one borderline student in with every class. Then again if you bring some guy in from Lehigh, I’m sure you’ll be able to sell a lot of season tickets with the donation stipulation.
maybe the lehigh coach could bring RI back to be the stud B1G player he was meant to be!
You really are getting salty lately. How’s the hoops office holding up? Pound the rock.
Cam you blame him? It's a fact that he forgotten about our basketball program more than most of the posters on here know, yet they keeping insisting that they are right and Haywood is wrong despite Haywood presenting countless facts to the contrary. Don't know about you, but if people drive Haywood away like they did many other quality posters during the Collins Carmody wars, we won't be left with much here...
I just hope the staff isn’t considering this season anything but an unmitigated disaster — and not, somehow, the fault of the administration.
I hope the program leaders don’t feel that way.
The administration didn’t make a senior-led team go from okay to bad to abysmal between December and February. For the second straight year.
Right? Right?
Are you saying we should blame it on Law,Pardon, and Ash for not being better senior leaders?
When I mentioned Lehigh I was referring to a past era when NU lost nearly every football game and won about five basketball games in a good season. My son is a Colgate grad, so Rapoulas isn’t going anywhere.
why not. people on this board like to twist what is going on to spiral it all back to one person (CCC) even if that person and his staff were sucker punched at the last minute by administration and injury and sickness happened and players are playing out of position and the players can't make wide open shots and the conference is as strong as its been and the majority of the team was on the bad chemistry team last and .... etc etc
there is obviously many many factors
but ill spiral it to you saying a senior led team can't do better to mean the seniors are leading well enough
disagree. human nature. always should be better. one bad pass/bad play away from this or that. see it all the time on message boards and sports radio.
human nature is to ***** and moan and believe your viewpoint to be only possible steadfast correct option!
Or the WildcatReport special ... they see no problems until they're smacked in the face and it's plainly obvious to any third grader.
Ten or 12 games into the season. "Oh ... hey ... the offense does suck."
I watched videos of Jared Jones and Buie over the weekend, I think the games were second half of this season.
Watching Buie and his handle really drives home the point of what this team tries to play without. There was arguably a chance at another 5 or so conference wins, NU won no close games, but the play has been patchwork at no fault of the players. Instead of commending AJ Turner, he gets criticism.
Buie looks good with the ball. Can he run the offense as a frosh, I have no idea. But the combo of Buie and a sophomore Greer is light years ahead of how they are doing it now. The ball is glued to Buie's hands and he sees the entire court/looks to pass all of the time.
The video of Jared Jones was from a playoff game, last couple of weeks. Wait for it....he hit three threes that mattered. I did not know that he had that going on. In another playoff game he had a triple double...one of the stats was for blocks.
So there's that.
Watching Buie and his handle really drives home the point of what this team tries to play without. There was arguably a chance at another 5 or so conference wins, NU won no close games, but the play has been patchwork at no fault of the players. Instead of commending AJ Turner, he gets criticism.
Buie looks good with the ball. Can he run the offense as a frosh, I have no idea. But the combo of Buie and a sophomore Greer is light years ahead of how they are doing it now. The ball is glued to Buie's hands and he sees the entire court/looks to pass all of the time.
The video of Jared Jones was from a playoff game, last couple of weeks. Wait for it....he hit three threes that mattered. I did not know that he had that going on. In another playoff game he had a triple double...one of the stats was for blocks.
So there's that.
Thanks for the report. Very encouraging.
High school players who move to major college conferences should dominate their high school teams, if they don't I'd be worried. Extrapolating what you see in high school is still difficult because many of the best players only play AAU ball, so there is some talent dilution in high school. But getting a couple of guys who look the part gives hope for NU hoops hopes!
Focus on Beran and Buie as Jones has not signed. No indication its more than a formality but you honestly never know with NU and the damn bad luck this program has. As were learned last year, even a signed letter of intent is not a closer for this program.
There have been other players w/ injury issues (VV, Cobb) who had ended up (when healthy/healthier) having pretty good or all-conf seasons.
Even healthy, seems like Rap and Falzon got recruited over (even if at this juncture, it's more on potential).
Like I've been saying, CC and staff need to change both the scheme and the type of player they recruit/make-up of the roster.
Even if next season is another down year, need to see if things start to improve w/ the 2020-21 season, if not the one following that.
CC, like Fitz, is a good face for the program.
They, however, can both be stubborn and make some questionable calls when it comes to play-calling/scheme/personnel, but going to have to live w/ that (and hope they learn from their mistakes) as going to be really tough to find better replacements.
You could maybe make an argument about Falzon, but how in the world can you say Rap was over-recruited? “Even when healthy”? He was never healthy. He was hurt both years he was here. I believe he appeared in two games. He couldn’t even practice during that time. He never even had a chance.
I would disagree with Falzon, too. He had a promising freshman year, then sat out two and a half years (redshirting one). Between the injuries and the rust, I don’t think he’s near the player he could have been.
Remember, both of those guys were four-star, Top 100 prospects. They were both rated higher than Law, for example.
Well, Lou.
Rap is healthy enough this season to win the Patriot League PoY.
Did he decide to transfer solely b/c he wanted a new/different scenery or did the impending addition of Nance and Kopp make his decision easier for him?
As for Falzon, even when he got healthy this season, Aaron wasn't see many minutes as CC was giving the majority of minutes to Kopp and Nance.
CC played Falzon in his break-out game on a hunch and b/c Nance was unavailable.
Falzon then had a chance to take the 4-spot, but never was able to come close to that sort of production (actually, didn't need to, could have taken the 4-spot w/ just a reasonable level of production/efficiency).
Falzon wouldn't have started his frosh season if Law hadn't gotten injured.
Aaron played reasonably well, but his efficiency was lacking.
That's the things w/ * ratings/rankings - they don't always pan out.
Rap is healthy enough this season to win the Patriot League PoY.
Did he decide to transfer solely b/c he wanted a new/different scenery or did the impending addition of Nance and Kopp make his decision easier for him?
As for Falzon, even when he got healthy this season, Aaron wasn't see many minutes as CC was giving the majority of minutes to Kopp and Nance.
CC played Falzon in his break-out game on a hunch and b/c Nance was unavailable.
Falzon then had a chance to take the 4-spot, but never was able to come close to that sort of production (actually, didn't need to, could have taken the 4-spot w/ just a reasonable level of production/efficiency).
Falzon wouldn't have started his frosh season if Law hadn't gotten injured.
Aaron played reasonably well, but his efficiency was lacking.
That's the things w/ * ratings/rankings - they don't always pan out.
I think a lot of Big Ten players would win the Patriot League Player of the Year. But that’s beside the point. My point is that Rap never had the chance to be recruited over. He never got a chance to compete or show his skills. Collins had to recruit guys because he knew that he couldn’t depend on Rap. He didn’t know if Rap would ever become the player they envisioned. You can’t afford to keep a scholarship for a guy whom you don’t know will ever be able to play at the Big Ten level. If Rap had been healthy and produced his freshman year, maybe Collins doesn’t go out to recruit Nance. We just don’t know. He never got the chance.
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You remember incorrectly, shocker! Those posters who commented on their exit cited posters who are currently banned (e.g Purp, DocCatsFan) as the reason for their departure...
And let me kbow when you post something that is a positive contribution to this board...