I'm not sold that Collins can recruit for NU. In my mind, a college coach is like a mid-size business owner. He needs to be talented at what he does (i.e., coach basketball), but more importantly, he needs to have a great plan and build an organization to execute that plan. The first problem I have had with Collins is that his recruiting strategy doesn't make sense. I feel like he is just trying to land as many four star guys as he can get without a real organizational plan for how those pieces fit together. For example, we got a bunch of tall, skinny, slow four star guys who could apparently shoot well for their size, but were tweeners - they weren't as good at shooting as a top shooting guard would be and they were not very good doing traditional big man things. So, in the end, they didn't turn out to be all that exceptional. Then there was the inability to find ball handling guards to mix in with these bigger guys. My second problem is about a lack of identity (which I guess is related to the first problem). There are some coaches that have a distinctive style and you can say - this kid is a Coach X kind of player. He fits that coach's style. Can we say that about Collins? What kind of kid would we say is a Coach Collins kind of player?
This has all led to a team that on paper has had some of our highest rated recruits, making us think Collins is a great recruiter, but some pretty bad teams (save that one magical run) because the parts don't really fit. I'm just not as impressed with his ability to build an organization and, to me, that's about smart recruiting.
Lots of interesting thought there. And, bear in mind, I am probably one of the most vocal critics of CC's decisions.
Still, I don't see the situation exactly as you do. I like the analogy of a coach being a lot like running a medium sized business. Build a team over time. But I think you are overlooking what kind of business he is running.
I believe you are thinking he runs a business that is profitable, and has the ability of recruiting decent talent. Say that business is a law office or something like that. It pays competitively, makes good choices on who to hire. Has challenges, but can execute on a vision of what it wants. And, most importantly, can more or less easily find the human capital it needs.
I believe CC is not running that kind of business. I believe he is running more of a retail operation. I say this because retail is a world I know fairly well. In such world, you do not offer very attractive work. You offer mostly $10/hour work that is not fun. Often work entails back breaking hours and hours of throwing freight onto shelves. Even at a manager level, it's not very attractive. It has enormous amounts of stress. Employees steal a lot, don't show for work, your talent pool comes from a socially challenged background where lives are chaotic. And, in the end, if you find someone reliable, who shows up for work, does not steal, that is good enough. You take the best you can get. Because there are not that many people wanting to work for you.
Bringing it back to NU bball. We can't aim to recruit from the entire "market". Most kids are not eligible to play for us. We have an horrendous track record. We have some good points, we offer great education, we have decent facilities, great city... We win on the front against a lot of other programs. But we are not competing with mid majors. We are competing with the big boys. Our competition for recruiting is fierce. So what is the best strategy? hard to figure out.
You hear the stories of how Rutgers built its current team. Hard nosed kids. You hear how Brad Stevens built the Butler teams, where attitude was far more important in recruiting than talent. But are we in a position of executing on that when our recruiting base is so small? Probably not.
So what do you do? For the most part, and in most cases, you are probably better off following the principle that if you find a good recruit, you take it. Regardless of position or need. That is not to say you do not try to balance the team. Point guard story, bla, bla, bla. You need a couple of big guys, bla, bla, bla... But for the most part, you can get a good prospect, you have to take him, because truth is that you don't get many chances at top 150 players. Maybe over time that can change. One can dream.
Wow, this got long. And, in the end, it is all summed by the inevitable conclusion, over and over again:
it always goes back to admissions
