Vassar voluntarily withdrew from the men's basketball program. He was stuck behind B-Mac and was convinced he was going to get an offer from another Power 5 program. Shockingly, despite averaging 0.8 points per game, that never happened. (Cue the lawsuit against the NCAA in which he supposedly didn't get these offers because he was going to have to sit out a year based upon transfer rules) So when he didn't the offers he thought he was going to get, Northwestern was kind enough to allow him to remain at the school on scholarship as a student, something it had absolutely no obligation to do. As a condition of remaining on scholarship, he held a work-study job with the facilities/grounds crew. For the last time, he wasn't a janitor and he wasn't cleaning toilets, so get rid of that myth. Once Vassar voluntarily withdrew from the program, Collins was finished with his involvement with him. So also get rid of the myth that Collins was in any way responsible for him doing anything with the work-study position. The work-study job was not an exclusive thing to Vassar. Any individual who was on scholarship who remained at the school but withdrew from a team for medical reasons or otherwise did the same. You can debate whether that should have been a condition or not, but that's how it was. As far as Polisky, he didn't force this upon Vassar. His involvement was that he was the administrator for men's basketball at the time. Why did Collins take Vassar in the first place when he had attended 4 high schools in 4 years? Valid question. That's on him. But he couldn't stand Sobo and didn't think he could come up with a worse option. Obviously he was wrong.
If what you say is true, then I have no issue at all with what transpired. This is the first I have heard of Vassar initiating his withdrawal from the team. That simple fact would change everything in my mind. Not sure why that fact, if true, has not been disseminated more broadly by the University.