A season of close calls

[NJCat]

Phillips came here to NU in spring 2008, when we were coming off a bad 8-22 record. Phillips did not fire Carmody. Maybe it was Bienen's influence or maybe Phillips was gunshy having just arrived. The next four years, Carmody racked up 17, 20, 20, and 19 wins. Phillips could not or would not fire Carmody then. Looking back, Phillips should have fired Carmody in spring 2008.

The problem is, without tht 4 year stretch of success Collins probably doesn't come to NU. BC showed NU basketball was no longer a dumpster fire. In hindsight, JP probably played it perfectly. BC got to a reasonable plateau, and then Collins came to get to the next level. Life is good. And Iowa lost!!

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Agreed.
I do believe we'll be in the 68 next year.
I also believe, based on my roller coaster today, that I will struggle to handle Selection Sunday unless we're like 27-6

Yeah...today's game was devistating to lose, especially when the kids play soooo hard to hang in there. Personally, I have to figure out a way to invest less of myself in these games. I pace up and down the entire 40 minutes...

 

[YesterdaysCat]

The problem is, without tht 4 year stretch of success Collins probably doesn't come to NU. BC showed NU basketball was no longer a dumpster fire. In hindsight, JP probably played it perfectly. BC got to a reasonable plateau, and then Collins came to get to the next level. Life is good. And Iowa lost!!

Knowing what I know now, I would have rather had some other coach just to see what would happened with different recruits and grad transfers, etc. Nothing against Bill, but we know how that played out. So if anybody has a parallel universe machine, can you let me know?

 

[olshin]

Yeah...today's game was devistating to lose, especially when the kids play soooo hard to hang in there. Personally, I have to figure out a way to invest less of myself in these games. I pace up and down the entire 40 minutes...

Seriously, and this was to get us onto the NIT bubble .... imagine if we were playing for our NCAA lives. This is why we need to win 26 or 27 games next year.

 

[NUCat320]

Knowing what I know now, I would have rather had some other coach just to see what would happened with different recruits and grad transfers, etc. Nothing against Bill, but we know how that played out. So if anybody has a parallel universe machine, can you let me know?

NU couldn't get anyone to take the job, and took a leap at Rick Pitino's top assistant. In a parallel universe, Richard Pitino led NU to 22 wins in four seasons before being fired. NU replaced him with Mike Rice from Rutgers, who was the fired for kicking Nate Taphorn in the groin (Taphorn has always loved NU).

I'm not sure the timing is right, but NU is way better off having had the post-2008 stretch with CBC.

 

[YesterdaysCat]

NU couldn't get anyone to take the job, and took a leap at Rick Pitino's top assistant. In a parallel universe, Richard Pitino led NU to 22 wins in four seasons before being fired. NU replaced him with Mike Rice from Rutgers, who was the fired for kicking Nate Taphorn in the groin (Taphorn has always loved NU).

I'm not sure the timing is right, but NU is way better off having had the post-2008 stretch with CBC.

Ha ha, very funny. I'm not calling Collins a liar, but I think he might have taken this job even if Carmody hadn't gotten us to respectability. As it turned out, Collins wound up having to rebuild the program anyway and he had to do some fundraising and convincing. It's classy of Collins to speak well of Carmody, but any coach would have left a nice piece or two, and even with Olah and Demps, we will not be going to the NIT.

 

[NJCat]

Ha ha, very funny. I'm not calling Collins a liar, but I think he might have taken this job even if Carmody hadn't gotten us to respectability. As it turned out, Collins wound up having to rebuild the program anyway and he had to do some fundraising and convincing. It's classy of Collins to speak well of Carmody, but any coach would have left a nice piece or two, and even with Olah and Demps, we will not be going to the NIT.

Wow, where to start.....first, in 2008 Collins is 33 years old. Coach K likely gives him the same advice as he gave Amaker, you're too young, wait for a better opportunity. And in 2008, NU won all of 8 games, after seasons of 13, 14, 15, 14 and 12 wins. Can you say dumpster fire? All coaches should do fund raising, problem was Carmody didn't seem up to it. And as far as the NIT goes? If NU doesn't make it, it will be because of the failure of the dubious minor conference champs to win their damn tournaments, not because NU isn't deserving.

Give Carmody credit for getting NU from A to B. He made NU an attractive place for a really good, relatively young coach, Chris Collins, to try to get them to point C.

 

[YesterdaysCat]

Wow, where to start.....first, in 2008 Collins is 33 years old. Coach K likely gives him the same advice as he gave Amaker, you're too young, wait for a better opportunity. And in 2008, NU won all of 8 games, after seasons of 13, 14, 15, 14 and 12 wins. Can you say dumpster fire? All coaches should do fund raising, problem was Carmody didn't seem up to it. And as far as the NIT goes? If NU doesn't make it, it will be because of the failure of the dubious minor conference champs to win their damn tournaments, not because NU isn't deserving.

Give Carmody credit for getting NU from A to B. He made NU an attractive place for a really good, relatively young coach, Chris Collins, to try to get them to point C.

Nah, I'm not saying Collins would have taken it in 2008. I'm saying let's assume NU has an opening HC job in 2013. I don't see why we couldn't have gotten Collins.

 

[NJCat]

Nah, I'm not saying Collins would have taken it in 2008. I'm saying let's assume NU has an opening HC job in 2013. I don't see why we couldn't have gotten Collins.

Gotcha. I agree with you on that.

 

[Gladeskat]

If probably say 2nd or 3rd best. Definitely not 5, but I know what you're doing anyway...lol

Tell me what I'm doing?

It's just a straight opinion, a combined response from a few threads.

Looking at other posts, I'd perhaps move the team to 4th if they make the NIT. Frankly, I don't care much where this team is ranked. Collins is doing a good job but we've got a way to go, some holes to fill. I look forward to the upward climb with CCC and these great kids.

 

[ColumbusCatFan1]

I think he probably would have made the difference in one extra, possibly two extra wins...

I tend to agree with this as well. At least the same could be said about Coble's injury in regards to the Cats' 09-10 squad.

NU basketball and snake bitten go hand in hand.

 

[wickerpark wildcat]

Wow, where to start.....first, in 2008 Collins is 33 years old. Coach K likely gives him the same advice as he gave Amaker, you're too young, wait for a better opportunity And as far as the NIT goes? If NU doesn't make it, it will be because of the failure of the dubious minor conference champs to win their damn tournaments, not because NU isn't deserving.

So, Collins was waiting for the worst job in all of the power conferences after 15 years as an assistant?

And as far as the NIT goes? If NU doesn't make it, it will be because of the failure of the dubious minor conference champs to win their damn tournaments, not because NU isn't deserving.

Make the case. NU had 1 RPI Top 50 win (and Wisc was playing nothing like a top 50 team at the time) and 1 RPI Top 100 win. The out of conference schedule was a joke and then we went 7-1 in conference against the weakest B1G bottom feeders in years. Team did a good job of having only 1 really bad loss, but did nothing to distinguish itself as a good team. The NIT nowadays is a pretty good tournament. Would not shock me to see NU in, but is hardly a slam dunk that they are deserving. Lunardi currently had OSU and MIch as outside the bubble... I think we need both to get in and hope the NIT values having a B1G representative to get in.