You can't have Greer as the point guard. He is not enough of a threat to score. He was used exactly right last night off the bench. Nicholson is NOT READY to play through contact or else he would be out there.
Hate to break this to you, but Greer has been our most effective guard since mid January. In conference games where Greer has played more than 10 minutes NU is 4-6. In games where he plays less than 10 minutes we are 1-6. Ever since the Ohio State loss on Jan 13th, Greer has stepped up his effort. Collins hasn't noticed, but in the 11 games since then, Greer has played a total of 97 minutes. He has made 12 of his 18 field goal attempts and scored 31 points. 13 assists, 12 rebounds, 4 turnovers, 2 steals. Using a 24 minute benchmark for playing time per game, we get...
Greer 7.7 pts, 4.5 shots, 3.2 apg, 3.0 rpg, 1.0 tov, 67%
Buie 9.9 pts, 8.8 shots, 2.6 apg, 1.8 rpg, 2.3 tov, 38%
Kopp 6.5 pts, 6.7 shots, 0.6 apg, 2.0 rpg, 1.6 tov, 33%
Audige 9.3 pts, 9.1 shots, 1.5 apg, 2.4 rpg, 2.3 tov, 41%
Gaines 4.3 pts, 3.5 shots, 0.9 apg, 4.8 rpg, 0.6 tov, 39%
Berry 6.1 pts, 5.9 shots, 1.0 apg, 1.6 rpg, 1.0 tov, 33%
The numbers make the case. Greer has been our most effective backcourt player, based on each minute of playing time, since mid-January. Best passer, best shooter, 2nd best rebounder. These stats don't include defense, but defensively, Audige and Gaines get a plus and Buie gets a minus. Defense is half of the game.
You should not assume that Collins recognizes talent. When he had Dererk Pardon as a freshman, he was going to redshirt him (no games played) until Alex Olah got injured in January and it suddenly occurred to Collins that having only two post players on the roster was probably not the smartest move.
So Pardon HAD to play. He stepped right into the Big Ten with a 28 point, 12 rebound performance against Nebraska, one of the best games in the last 20 years by a Northwestern big man. On that one fact, no one can sensibly claim that Collins knows if a freshman is "ready."