I prefer to begin the line at Jitim. This has the added effect of putting Kevin O'Neill in his rightful position: as the true foundation of all that is good about Northwestern basketball, and humanity.
Loved Jitim, but Jitm, Tavaras and Co. never broke the program's modus operandi of stinking for a few years and then making it to the NIT w/ an upperclassmen-laden team.
In fact, while they had 2 decent seasons (at least when it came to B1G records), they never even made it to the post-season.
Juice was instrumental in getting 2 other local boys (Johnny and Drew) to come to NU.
I loved Juice, but that’s a lot of assumptions.
Shurna and Crawford decided on NU b/c they believed the program could be a
winning program; that wouldn't have been possible w/o someone like Juice already on the roster and running the show (plus, they were all familiar with each other).
Just think that those kids choose NU because Collins was the new coach and not what took place in the last couple of seasons. That's just about what law's dad said.
While CC may have been the final impetus, it's human nature to require some reassurance.
It would have been quite a different for CC to be selling recruits that they can turn the program around and win at NU (despite no history of showing any kind of sustained success) as opposed to being the ones who can finally get the program over the hump.
And besides, Law's dad also stated they they were interested in NU for some time, they just didn't like the
take it or leave it approach from BC's staff.