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Chris Collins and Northwestern

hooper56

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Would be interested in your guys' thoughts about Northwestern. I have always felt Collins was a really good coach but he seems to have a lot of bad luck at Northwestern with injuries, etc. He recruits fairly well. (Could be better) and always seems to have a couple of knock down shooters. I was a little surprised they didn't fire him but I am not sure they can do any better. Do you think he can turn things around? Obviously he needs some better players. What do you guys think? How would you project them next year and beyond?
 
IMO I think Collins is a decent coach and I like him as a person given the interviews I have heard and his demeanor during games. I agree he/team has been snake bitten by injuries, etc. As far as his future at NW I am not sure he can do much better and I expect more of the same from NW. Tough place to recruit to IMO given the educational requirements.

Bottom line is if Iowa was looking for a new BBall coach he would be a quality candidate IMO.
 
IMO I think Collins is a decent coach and I like him as a person given the interviews I have heard and his demeanor during games. I agree he/team has been snake bitten by injuries, etc. As far as his future at NW I am not sure he can do much better and I expect more of the same from NW. Tough place to recruit to IMO given the educational requirements.

Bottom line is if Iowa was looking for a new BBall coach he would be a quality candidate IMO.
I was under the impression that the athletes on scholarship take different classes or have different academic requirements then the general student population. Not sure if that is true, though.
 
NW will never be a basketball power. The cards are too stacked against them between academics, history, fanbase, student body, etc. They've only won two Big Ten titles, in 1931 and 1933. In the last 50 years they haven't finished higher than 5th in conference and only finished in a tie for fifth twice during that time frame.

If Collins is happy then I think you let him stay as long as he wants with maybe a few tweaks. He has put it together and made the NCAA once already, including a first round win. He can do that again, but it will be more difficult now with the transfer portal. It is a lot easier for good basketball players to transfer out of NW than it is to transfer in. Plus while NW has a lot of rich alumni, a lot of them don't care about sports enough to invest in NIL money for players when they could push that money towards a football program that has had success.

I think he needs to find a gimmick in his gameplan to be successful since NW has struggled a to compete against other Big Ten teams playing straight up basketball that he's been coaching in his tenure. Carmody was semi-successful because he ran the Princeton offense that the rest of the conference wasn't used to seeing. It allowed him to win games against other Big Ten teams, including Iowa frequently, that didn't have the talent to just overwhelm NW. Doing something like that, and recruiting the players that allow him to do that, could help improve his record.
 
NW will never be a basketball power. The cards are too stacked against them between academics, history, fanbase, student body, etc.
I once thought the same thing about NW football.

Also, there is a vast difference between a basketball power and where NW has landed in the standings lately.

Seems like a good guy, and they play a disciplined style (maybe that's part of the issue), but it seems like he should be able to recruit better than he has.

But, you're certainly right about history and fan base. NW averaged 2,819 fans? C'mon.
 
I was under the impression that the athletes on scholarship take different classes or have different academic requirements then the general student population. Not sure if that is true, though.
An alum of both schools here. Unless things have changed since I was at NU, athletes take the same classes as everyone else. The school might discourage an athlete from taking something really challenging such as organic chemistry, and you might see a higher concentration of athletes in a few majors, but there were no special "slide" programs for athletes. I had a ton of athletes in my classes. I do think NU gives the athletes a lot of academic support. It graduates an astounding percentage of its athletes, and usually on time if not early.

Regarding Collins, I have mixed feelings. He is a well-spoken and seemingly solid guy. He is an above-average recruiter. I believe the average recruiting ranking of his team this year was slightly higher than Iowa's. But Collins has been cursed by injuries and weird player situations throughout his tenure. He has tried to play a more conventional, non-gimmicky style that perhaps works less well with mediocre athletes. While I am no Xs and Os guru, his teams rarely seem like a mess out there. There appears to be a method at work. His teams play hard for him. But I have never seen such a consistently "un-clutch" team as NU in every year since their NCAA appearance in 2017. So many leads blown and close games lost. Likewise, I have never seen a team so prone to long scoreless streaks in games. The shooting is feast or famine. NU recently spent a boatload of money rebuilding the basketball arena, and the results ever since have been disappointing. No return on investment.

It has been maddening. Collins is certainly not an incompetent coach, but his seat necessarily will be toasty next year.
 
Seems like a good guy, and they play a disciplined style (maybe that's part of the issue), but it seems like he should be able to recruit better than he has.

But, you're certainly right about history and fan base. NW averaged 2,819 fans? C'mon.
Collins is actually a decent recruiter. The problem is that he has a history of finishing second or third for potentially program-changing recruits--even when they are sons of alums.
 
An alum of both schools here. Unless things have changed since I was at NU, athletes take the same classes as everyone else. The school might discourage an athlete from taking something really challenging such as organic chemistry, and you might see a higher concentration of athletes in a few majors, but there were no special "slide" programs for athletes. I had a ton of athletes in my classes. I do think NU gives the athletes a lot of academic support. It graduates an astounding percentage of its athletes, and usually on time if not early.

Regarding Collins, I have mixed feelings. He is a well-spoken and seemingly solid guy. He is an above-average recruiter. I believe the average recruiting ranking of his team this year was slightly higher than Iowa's. But Collins has been cursed by injuries and weird player situations throughout his tenure. He has tried to play a more conventional, non-gimmicky style that perhaps works less well with mediocre athletes. While I am no Xs and Os guru, his teams rarely seem like a mess out there. There appears to be a method at work. His teams play hard for him. But I have never seen such a consistently "un-clutch" team as NU in every year since their NCAA appearance in 2017. So many leads blown and close games lost. Likewise, I have never seen a team so prone to long scoreless streaks in games. The shooting is feast or famine. NU recently spent a boatload of money rebuilding the basketball arena, and the results ever since have been disappointing. No return on investment.

It has been maddening. Collins is certainly not an incompetent coach, but his seat necessarily will be toasty next year.
Wow. That is the kind of informed feedback I was looking for! Thanks.
 
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I was under the impression that the athletes on scholarship take different classes or have different academic requirements then the general student population. Not sure if that is true, though.
Not sure where you'd get that. The course catalog is the same for all students. Many classes require prerequisites and most majors require some specific classes. There have always been "blow off" or easier classes that some people including jocks gravitate toward.

That said, "Bachelor of General Studies" would seem custom made for the student-athlete. Lots of flexiblity. Don't get me started on some of the other absurd "majors" that are offered by many Universities.
 
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IMO I think Collins is a decent coach and I like him as a person given the interviews I have heard and his demeanor during games. I agree he/team has been snake bitten by injuries, etc. As far as his future at NW I am not sure he can do much better and I expect more of the same from NW. Tough place to recruit to IMO given the educational requirements.

Bottom line is if Iowa was looking for a new BBall coach he would be a quality candidate IMO.
And he would listen to Iowa. If I remember correctly Dr. Tom recruited him heavily as a player back in the day.
 
Not sure where you'd get that. The course catalog is the same for all students. Many classes require prerequisites and most majors require some specific classes. There have always been "blow off" or easier classes that some people including jocks gravitate toward.

That said, "Bachelor of General Studies" would seem custom made for the student-athlete. Lots of flexiblity. Don't get me started on some of the other absurd "majors" that are offered by many Universities.
I thought I heard that they had special programs for athletes that consisted of not as difficult academic classes. Guess that must have been wrong info!
 
I was under the impression that the athletes on scholarship take different classes or have different academic requirements then the general student population. Not sure if that is true, though.
That is not true. They only have 8,000 under-grad students (2000 per class) at Northwestern. The student athletes attend the same classes as everyone else. My daughter went to Northwestern.
 
I thought I heard that they had special programs for athletes that consisted of not as difficult academic classes. Guess that must have been wrong info!
They definitely find 'em...but so did a few of us non-jocks. 😉
 
IMO I think Collins is a decent coach and I like him as a person given the interviews I have heard and his demeanor during games. I agree he/team has been snake bitten by injuries, etc. As far as his future at NW I am not sure he can do much better and I expect more of the same from NW. Tough place to recruit to IMO given the educational requirements.

Bottom line is if Iowa was looking for a new BBall coach he would be a quality candidate IMO.
Hard pass. Opponent fans like him, he's very likable, good with the media and comes off as a "good guy." And he probably is.

But his team had some talent this year and they just play undisciplined and without a plan. There is no other way to say it. Audige and Boo Buie are allowed to take whatever terrible shot they want, which become just like turnovers. Coaching at Northwestern is more challenging than other schools. No doubt about it. But what they have rolled out under Collins recently has been bad.

Since they made the NCAA tournament in 2017, here are their records:

15-17
13-19
8-22
9-15
15-16

That is a complete recruiting cycle with zip, nada, mediocre to bad basketball.
 
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As an Illini fan in Chicago (i.e., not biased toward NU but familiar with the area), I can’t make up my mind on Collins.

On one hand, I don’t think it’s really debatable that they’ve had some disappointing results based on the talent on the roster … you can talk about close losses to good teams, but I’ve seen more than a couple of those where Underwood simply has his guys ready for crunch time, and Collins’ guys look like deer in the headlights.

On the other hand, NU is an even harder job than outsiders assume. Chicago is a pro sports city compared to Des Moines, sure … but compared to NYC, Philly, Boston, etc., the support for college sports is actually pretty high. You have a large Notre Dame contingent mostly centered around the southwest suburbs and among Catholic school graduates with no football teams (very little extends to hoops support, though), you have a huge Illini alumni base (and even bigger bandwagon fan base that focuses on pro sports when Illinois sucks but still identified them as their favorite team) and then a large alumni base for many Big Ten schools (Iowa, IU, Michigan, etc.). NU neither has (A) the large alumni base to drum up support or (B) the “hometown feel” Illinois does among recruits. Most locals see Northwestern as otherworldly … they’re proud it’s in the Chicago Area, but they don’t see it as “local” as far as sports. There are plenty of non-alumni Illini fans here (I’m one), but I’ve never met one for NU. Recruits just don’t grow up thinking of them as “staying home.” Then throw on admissions standards, small crowds and a lack of tradition … it’s a tough sell.

Bottom line? I think they’d do worse with his replacement, but I get why their fans might be mad.
 
Northwestern is a coaches graveyard. The last coach that finished his career there with a winning record was before the midway point of the last century.
That said, I think Collins is a nice guy, but below average as a coach. I know it is tough to win there, but I've watched a lot of Wildcat games where they managed to swipe defeat out of the hands of victory. People on here complain about McCaffery's coaching in the last few minutes of games, but they would go absolutely ballistic if he lost games like Collins has. He got the job because of his association with Coach K, but like others from that tree, they find themselves in over their heads at this level.
 
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A lot of very valid points made in this thread both pro and con regarding NW/Collins. IMHO, I do not think Collins can be fairly evaluated either way until (and if) he coaches another D1 school. NW is not a sports school and a difficult place to coach.
 
I thought I heard that they had special programs for athletes that consisted of not as difficult academic classes. Guess that must have been wrong info!
Wasn’t UNC caught doing this? Athletes has special programs of courses for them and it was discovered they were bogus.
 
Wasn’t UNC caught doing this? Athletes has special programs of courses for them and it was discovered they were bogus.
Yes. But the NCAA doesn't set curriculum, the college does. The NCAA just says that the classes have to be available to all students, not just athletes. So the NCAA said that if UNC says the course, and the effectively zero course work done by the students in the course, is legit then they have to recognize it as valid for the athletes that took it.

UNC was put on probation for a year by their accrediting body, but nothing in terms of punishment came of their "cheating", aside from national titles in 2005, 2009, and 2017 that they were allowed to keep(hence no punishment).
 
What's interesting is Chris has been at N'w since March 2013 so he's had 10 recruiting classes.

You could argue that he's recruited quite well.

Comparing the last 10 recruiting classes:

Chris.........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *
Fran..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *

But the results on the court are not so good.

Comparing the same 9 seasons since Chris was hired:

Chris............. 132–148 (.471) and 56–113 (.331) B1G
Fran...............188-112 (.627) and 96-75 (.561) B1G

8 of the last 9 seasons
Chris has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.
1 of the last 9 seasons Fran has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.


Comparing Recruiting with Results:

The 10 Recruiting Classes for Chris:

........what he signed (where N'w finished in the Standings)

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2014: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2015: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (9th B1G)
2016: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (10th B1G)
2018: 2 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (14th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (13th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (12th B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *


Compare this to Fran:

.....what he signed (where Iowa finished in the Standings)

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2014: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2015: 0 four*, 6 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2016: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-11th B1G)
2018: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (3rd B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (T-4th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *
 
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What's interesting is Chris has been at N'w since March 2013 so he's had 10 recruiting classes.

You could argue that he's recruited quite well.

Comparing the last 10 recruiting classes:

Chris.........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *
Fran..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *

But the results on the court are not so good.

Comparing the same 9 seasons since Chris was hired:

Chris............. 132–148 (.471) and 56–113 (.331) B1G
Fran...............188-112 (.627) and 96-75 (.561) B1G

8 of the last 9 seasons
Chris has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.
1 of the last 9 seasons Fran has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.


Comparing Recruiting with Results:

The 10 Recruiting Classes for Chris:

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2014: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2015: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (9th B1G)
2016: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (10th B1G)
2018: 2 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (14th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (13th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (12th B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *


Compare this to Fran:

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2014: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2015: 0 four*, 6 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2016: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-11th B1G)
2018: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (3rd B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (T-4th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *

Collins has had 9 classes, not 10. Just an FYI.
 
Would be interested in your guys' thoughts about Northwestern. I have always felt Collins was a really good coach but he seems to have a lot of bad luck at Northwestern with injuries, etc. He recruits fairly well. (Could be better) and always seems to have a couple of knock down shooters. I was a little surprised they didn't fire him but I am not sure they can do any better. Do you think he can turn things around? Obviously he needs some better players. What do you guys think? How would you project them next year and beyond?
Chris was hired by NW in March 2013. Coach K at Duke took 10 years to establish the Duke program.
 
What's interesting is Chris has been at N'w since March 2013 so he's had 10 recruiting classes.

You could argue that he's recruited quite well.

Comparing the last 10 recruiting classes:

Chris.........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *
Fran..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *

But the results on the court are not so good.

Comparing the same 9 seasons since Chris was hired:

Chris............. 132–148 (.471) and 56–113 (.331) B1G
Fran...............188-112 (.627) and 96-75 (.561) B1G

8 of the last 9 seasons
Chris has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.
1 of the last 9 seasons Fran has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.


Comparing Recruiting with Results:

The 10 Recruiting Classes for Chris:

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2014: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2015: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (9th B1G)
2016: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (10th B1G)
2018: 2 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (14th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (13th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (12th B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-10th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *


Compare this to Fran:

2013: 0 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2014: 0 four*, 3 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2015: 0 four*, 6 three*, 0 two * (T-3rd B1G)
2016: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2017: 2 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-11th B1G)
2018: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (6th B1G)
2019: 1 four*, 1 three*, 0 two * (T-5th B1G)
2020: 1 four*, 4 three*, 0 two * (3rd B1G)
2021: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two * (T-4th B1G)
2022: 0 four*, 2 three*, 0 two *
................................................................
..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *
That’s a good look at what he’s done, or really hasn’t done. I do really think the major missing component is how much harder it is to win at NW when they have effectively no fan base. We complain about the crowds at CHA, but it is much worse for them. It doesn’t get much worse than that picture from the NIT about a decade ago of the guy reading a book during the game while sitting in a lower level seat with lots of empty space around him. Makes you wonder how many close losses they could have flipped if they had a true home court advantage during his tenure.

Another thing that we’ve seen is that it is usually end of the bench players that transfer out for Fran, up until CJ and Joe these past two years. That and losing a few players to the NBA early has allowed Fran to recruit more players that may have a shot at producing. Judging by the 5 fewer recruits during the same time, it seems that Collins isn’t getting guys that aren’t producing to leave to open up roster spots for new recruits with potential. Probably because a NW education is much more valuable than transferring to a smaller school for playing time. In today’s game having a player take up 4 years of a scholarship while sitting at the end of the bench is much worse than him transferring after a couple years when it looks like he won’t work out. You know what you’re getting with that 4 year player(not much) as opposed to a new recruit where you roll the dice and hope for production in the first two years.
 
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So is Fran leaving? He is 10 times the coach Collins is. Wins and losses is All that matters. I don’t understand the morbid curiosity Iowa fans on this site seem to have with Fran’s replacement! Why do you want to fire him after every loss you think you should win? You need to think more strategic. Look at Collins record. You seem to make excuses for him but not your own coach That is pretty damned good.
 
So is Fran leaving? He is 10 times the coach Collins is. Wins and losses is All that matters. I don’t understand the morbid curiosity Iowa fans on this site seem to have with Fran’s replacement! Why do you want to fire him after every loss you think you should win? You need to think more strategic. Look at Collins record. You seem to make excuses for him but not your own coach That is pretty damned good.
I’ve liked Fran for his whole tenure and he seems like a great person. But as a coach we‘ve seen his ceiling and it is the 2nd round of the tourney. I understand why people want a change when we’ve had three straight seasons with a NPOY candidate and he managed 1 NCAA tourney win to go with a tourney cancellation.

It doesn’t take 5 years to build a program today and Fran just finished his 12th season. Fran’s limitations in his coaching of defense and rebounding, plus his limitations in closing the deal on the top recruits he’s identified will keep us at the level he’s gotten us to. He’s done a lot of good things for us and brought in some great and beloved players. But he hasn’t adapted and that is killing his success. He’s also going to hire only his 5th assistant coach in his tenure with us, while 2 of them have been here the entire time, which tells us his assistant coaching staff isn’t in demand. You need fresh blood, fresh ideas, and fresh recruiting connections every now and then to be successful and we haven’t gotten that.

The difference between Fran and Collins is that Fran is at a school with basketball history that could be great again and that is why people expect more Iowa just needs the right coach to meet that greatness as the program isn’t enough to get us there on its own like UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, etc. When we‘ve had Bucky, Miller, or Lute as coach we’ve been able to do amazing things. Collins is given much more leeway because it is NW who has effectively zero basketball history and expectations.
 
How are the academic standards at NW compared to Duke? Seems to be the same. The cure for Duke was winning, would it also work for NW?
 
How are the academic standards at NW compared to Duke? Seems to be the same. The cure for Duke was winning, would it also work for NW?
According to the NU boards (i.e., I have not verified this myself), the two schools’ general academic standards are nearly identical, but Duke has a VERY generous standard for student athletes that NU refused to budge on.
 
Yes. But the NCAA doesn't set curriculum, the college does. The NCAA just says that the classes have to be available to all students, not just athletes. So the NCAA said that if UNC says the course, and the effectively zero course work done by the students in the course, is legit then they have to recognize it as valid for the athletes that took it.

UNC was put on probation for a year by their accrediting body, but nothing in terms of punishment came of their "cheating", aside from national titles in 2005, 2009, and 2017 that they were allowed to keep(hence no punishment).
And poor Roy had no idea what was happening in his own basketball program. Head coaches are like that, right? No attention to detail. They just let their assistants run the program and they show up for the games.
 
I’ve liked Fran for his whole tenure and he seems like a great person. But as a coach we‘ve seen his ceiling and it is the 2nd round of the tourney. I understand why people want a change when we’ve had three straight seasons with a NPOY candidate and he managed 1 NCAA tourney win to go with a tourney cancellation.
I think people forget some of the second round opponents we've encountered after winning our opening game. Gonzaga, Villanova and Tennessee were all highly ranked when we played them in the second round and the Oregon game was the perfect storm against us. I would love to advance further in the NCAA's as much as the next guy, but I'm not willing to just write off all the success we've had in the regular season to justify my anger about the tournament.
 
I think people forget some of the second round opponents we've encountered after winning our opening game. Gonzaga, Villanova and Tennessee were all highly ranked when we played them in the second round and the Oregon game was the perfect storm against us. I would love to advance further in the NCAA's as much as the next guy, but I'm not willing to just write off all the success we've had in the regular season to justify my anger about the tournament.
That’s fair, but if he wants to lose that stigma of a 2nd round ceiling he needs to beat the team in front of him at least once. One way of doing that is do better in the regular season to earn a higher seed. He’s been close once in the OT against Tennessee and blown out the other times. And the two times he had brackets that set up well for deep runs, his team laid an egg. This year and 2014 where Tennessee blew us out in the play-in game and proceeded to make it to the sweet sixteen because Duke got knocked out in a 3-14 game before losing to Michigan by 2, a team Iowa had already beaten earlier that year.

So while we can acknowledge he’s gone against some tough teams, we can also acknowledge that he hasn’t beaten any of them and has rarely put himself in positions where he can make deep runs without facing one of those tough teams.
 
Chris was hired by NW in March 2013. Coach K at Duke took 10 years to establish the Duke program.
Duke didn't win the NCAA title til year 11 but they were in the mix by year 6. Played in the NC game in year 6, Sweet 16 in year 7, then back-to-back FInal Fours and another NC title game appearance.

Collins has taken NW to the NCAA tourney once, winning their first round game.
 
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Collins seems to be a bad coach in the last 5 minutes of games. Probably more a talent issue, but NU fans think he’s a bad end of game coach.

He is something like 50-150 in Big Ten play in his tenure. Hard to defend that no matter what you think of him.
 
I was under the impression that the athletes on scholarship take different classes or have different academic requirements then the general student population. Not sure if that is true, though.
Yeah, I’ve heard similar things about N’Western football players too.
 
Collins seems to be a bad coach in the last 5 minutes of games. Probably more a talent issue, but NU fans think he’s a bad end of game coach.

He is something like 50-150 in Big Ten play in his tenure. Hard to defend that no matter what you think of him.

Not sure it's a talent issue. As I noted above, you could argue he's recruited better than Fran but (1) where's the player development and (2) where are on court results?

Chris has been at N'w since March 2013 so he's had 10 recruiting classes. You could argue that he's recruited quite well.

Comparing the last 10 recruiting classes:

Chris.........8 four*, 18 three*, 0 two *
Fran..........6 four*, 25 three*, 0 two *

But I agree with you; it is hard to defend his overall record.

Comparing the same 9 seasons since Chris was hired:

Chris............. 132–148 (.471) and 56–113 (.331) B1G
Fran................188-112 (.627) and 96-75 (.561) B1G

8 of the last 9 seasons
Chris has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.
1 of the last 9 seasons Fran has finished 9th or worse in the B1G.
 
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