Yeah, but Collins hasn't gotten us into the tournament since.... what.... last March? Come on... that was almost a year ago. Why no appearances since then??
Andy Katz. Knowledge. Rumor or Just Pro Collins
- Thread starter T_Levine
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Barnhizer hurt was way better than any other options. You should know that from the stats.
Windham has played more minutes than Clayton. That’s what matters. Also remember - Clayton has played way fewer real games this year than anyone; he deserves more real-time action to get better before we fully judge.
Mullins is improving, but he also is limited offensively - have you ever seen him take a mid-range jumper? He can only drive to the rim or do a 3-point set shot. And I guess your thinking would imply that Underwood was an idiot for totally laying off such a great player earlier this season?
The players respond to a coach they love and respect. You have no idea what passion is purely by the fact you cannot see it in spades from Collins. Collins’s recruits (even the ones who transfer, with one MK exception) all come back to see him.
The apologists can never accept anything criticism of Saint Chris. So wonderful to have three saints as current and former coaches.
Welcome back Bobby. Can always count on you when Coaches get criticized. I never ever defeat you took on the platform was the fault of the Coach.
PWB needs a few allies. Sorry better to jump in next year when we really stink and the Posse is built back up.
Why are you even responding to such nonsense? Haters gonna hate and rely on silly self created data points when they never strapped it on. You would have to totally biased if you think CCC did a crap job this year or lack any concept what it takes to run a program.
Fair points. But when the crap is so thick, it’s hard to not react to the smell.
What!?!
Your own +\- numbers from the OSU game say Clayton played 11 minutes and KJ played 29. How in the world does that translate in your mind to “using Clayton over Windham”? Do you expect 40 minutes from the Freshman?
Barnhizer reinjured his foot landing after a dunk and then powered through for a few games before being shut down. He was never going to get fully healthy and he was the best option to get NU wins this season.
Barnhizer was a very good player till the end. Better than the other options. He ran the offense, grabbed boards, played excellent defense, and scored double digit points.
The core 7 guys were who needed to get the minutes and play well if NU was going to return to the tournament. With 60% of the starting 5 missing the off-season and a new starter who never played B1G ball or played with the rest of your starters (sans Martinelli) in the offseason, it would be coaching malpractice not to play them heavy minutes to develop chemistry in non-con play.
You would have been up in arms if Hunger didn’t get the majority of the back up big minutes after Lehigh. Hunger over Fitzmorris did not cost NU one game. Hunger earned his minutes from that game and then was Wally Pipped.
Windham is over Clayton in minutes so this is flat out false. Minutes and who ends games matters. Windham has been playing way more minutes when the production is there.
It seems like you have a strong opinion about Coach Collins, but let's take a closer look at the facts. Coaches set the tone for the team and establish the culture they want to cultivate. Collins has made it clear to his players that hard work is key, and they've echoed this in every post-game press conference. If you’ve spent any time in a locker room or observed the interactions between Collins and the players, you'd see how much he genuinely cares for each of them. He’s not the type to give up on his players. He’s simply being honest about the fact that losing key players like Barnhizer and Leach will inevitably affect the team’s performance. Expecting KJ and Clayton to step in and maintain the same level of play isn't realistic. He’s not going to put that pressure on them. Your take here is based of no data and purely your opinion that clearly has an anti-Collins bias for some weird reason.
I’m alive and well living the snow bum life in Tahoe, mourning the season stolen by refs and injuries.
But PWB makes a fair point. And nobody is perfect, why the hell can’t the zealots understand it’s ok for coaches to be flawed, all humans are. Doesn’t make him a bad coach, just had a couple bad nights which cost a couple of games. So not his best season.
And as a result, would be a great season to extend him a couple of years. Last year, that would be more costly. But I doubt NU will do such a wise thing.
I agree Bob. No Coach is perfect. CCC certainly had his share of growing pains. I try to point out the mistakes when they happen. However, when posters say on multiple occasions that coach looks like they are trying to lose or post blatantly inaccurate comments about playing time it doesn’t help their credibility when bringing up what they perceive as bad games. I personally tune out both extremes as whether they admit it or not there is clear bias in their opinions.
As far as extending CCC, I would only make the term extend for the duration of the next recruiting class. 4-5 years tops. The only reason to go longer is if there is a competing offer in the works that may be more enticing.
Agree with the extensions term but disagree about the content of the PWB posts. He pointed out where ccc cost them at least one and arguably two games. That Washington game is all on ccc. The nebby game is simply not being the best coach that game. Neither comment was a flaming indictment of ccc. Simply the zealots turn everything into flaming because they will tolerate nothing less than total homage to their saint. It is what makes SD nearly unreadable.
And you don’t seemingly tune out sd and his extremism, just jump on PWB and mix it up with me
We also just stayed the course against Rutgers and saw Bailey destroy us.
Coaches making mistakes is part of the game. We have the benefit of hindsight. It’s analysis, it’s not saying we would do better or that it was obvious. In the end I am not sure how you can argue the out of left field decision of going with Smith against USC? was a good one.
There were other games this season where we were very well prepared and made good decisions. Against IL our win was 100% going for switches on Martinelli. We also won two games at the buzzer that were no fluke. All good coaching.
Coaches making mistakes is part of the game. We have the benefit of hindsight. It’s analysis, it’s not saying we would do better or that it was obvious. In the end I am not sure how you can argue the out of left field decision of going with Smith against USC? was a good one.
There were other games this season where we were very well prepared and made good decisions. Against IL our win was 100% going for switches on Martinelli. We also won two games at the buzzer that were no fluke. All good coaching.
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I agree with this post.
I think the game plan was “fine” against Bailey. He didn’t do as well off the dribble. I just don’t think anyone listened to it outside of Gelo. Especially in the first half. CCC was rightfully livid. That’s on the coaches if you can’t get the players to implement the game plan. Better draw something else up they can execute.
That Smith decision made sense to me in the moment, but with the benefit of hindsight was disastrous. He played well defensively last season and played real basketball.
Agreed bad choice with hindsight.
For recent games, it’s a lot harder to look good and make changes as a coach with inexperienced players running your offense and limited scoring options. Have to grade this season with the context of experience and injuries and overall I think it’s been a very good coaching job given the adversity. Team fights hard and found a way to win against OSU. Let’s get another tomorrow!
You love mixing it up!And you don’t seemingly tune out sd and his extremism, just jump on PWB and mix it up with me
This is not what happened. Barnhizer got hurt in the MSU game, which is after the halfway point in the year. He also had played in more than 1/3 of the games. Redshirt unlikely.
NU's medical team determined playing on it further was not going to do long-term damage, so he continued to play, until the cumulative effect of the original injury, plus others made it extremely difficult for him to play.
It was not a coaching decision AT ALL.
“If you’ve spent any time in a locker room…”
I think we all know the answer to that!
Regarding this being a year that can be considered “best coaching job”… I don’t think a year where you lose this much should even be considered. Our opponents tonight are over achieving for the quality of their roster. I’m sure Gopher (reasonable) fans are not happy at all.
IMO Collins’ best coaching year was, by far, the year after Nance and Young left. It was a complete redo of roster, strategy, etc. It was excellent.
IMO Collins’ best coaching year was, by far, the year after Nance and Young left. It was a complete redo of roster, strategy, etc. It was excellent.
I know we all like to think our posts on here are worth a million bucks, but they're not. PWB, Gordie and me all make the same amount for each one of our posts ... $99 each. (That is what we negotiated with Cappy, right??) It is such a fine line between success and failure at this level, especially for a school like Northwestern which doesn't traditionally recruit the athletes that can overwhelm anybody. We do it with execution and effort and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, it doesn't take much to disrupt things. It could be a few blown calls, the absence of your best player for many games, the lack of depth due to a couple missed recruiting classes... all of those might turn a win into a loss and then you're looking at 14th place, even though it doesn't feel like we're that far off. I don't think we are going to find a magic formula that explains it. So, let's all breathe and just ride with it.
We're such a small group of crazy fans to begin with. We don't have the fanbase depth to alienate each other.
We're such a small group of crazy fans to begin with. We don't have the fanbase depth to alienate each other.
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Have we really reverted to the strapped it on argument. As a former scholarship athlete, I find this argument so elitest and snobby. These are stupid games at the end of the day, a form of entertainment. Athletics won’t ever rival actual important and complex concepts like engineering and medicine. Just a game. Sorry not sorry.
I'm just referring to Clayton being the starter.
Reminds me of Beran being the starter over Barnhizer.
This is what you do. Make crap up.
Show me where I said "Collins did a crap job."
The problem is that some of you guys insist that Collins is flawless and cannot bear to even consider things that he screwed up.
So you get all emotional about it.
Thats on you. I'm just trying to have a rational discussion.
The numbers show Barnhizer declined pretty significantly after he got hurt again. He did have a couple fairly good games after that, which is a credit to his toughness, but overall, he was not nearly as effective. And the team struggled because of it.
Whether Collins had other options to the injured Barnhizer is debatable. I'd say he did. Just based on the way Mullins, Ciaravino and Windham are playing.
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