Been thinking this for the last week or so .....

[hdhntr1]

Imagine there was a coaching convention , in one lecture hall BC was talking and in the other CC was lecturing. Which hall do you think would have more attendees?

Depends on whether I needed a nap or not

 

[Katatonic]

Carmody had an offensive system that allowed his less-talented players to maximize their potential, but their peak was the NIT due to an inability to coach up defense and a lackadaisical approach to recruiting. He was never able to get more than one headline player in a class, and therefore never had the depth required to truly contend in the conference. At other schools, he likely would've been fired following the 8-22 record in his 8th season, but he got a second chance that lead to 4 NITs in a row.

Collins has a defensive system that has allowed his less-talented players to maximize their potential, and 3 times he has done what no other Northwestern coach had ever done. Collins had recruiting misses after his first class that nearly threatened to cut his time short at NU, but a second chance led to back-to-back Tourney bids and has set things up for the future.

Maybe BC never hired the right assistant to coach D (don't think it was BC's venue), but BC didn't exactly have enough plus defenders (ironically, he finally did in what would be his last team with Crawford, Swop, Hearn, Lumpkin and Cobb, but injuries and suspension made piecemeal of that team).

Plus the Princeton O is a system not geared towards defensive rebounding (even if you do have the horses), as seen when the Lakers tried to run the PO in what turned out to be a disastrous experiment.

Regarding having the right defensive personnel, BC did try to shake things up, going away from the skilled/Euro-style center and getting more "beef" to bang in Rowley (remember how we were all excited about that class?).

BC's biggest failure recruiting wise was never getting his Pardon, who I had long stated was the most important recruit for the program (in the modern era) along with Juice.

I like all of this except...

I'm not sure there is evidence that Carmody's recruiting was "lackadaisical". The evidence is that he wasn't good at it, and there are plenty of hints that he absolutely didn't like doing it, but he never struck me as being careless or lazy in his professional capacity as head coach.

Other than that quibble, I think your analysis is spot on (meaning of course that I agree with you so you must be correct!).

I do worry about this next year as a transition year that could go awry if enough of the freshmen aren't able to get up to speed by December.

Yeah, think it was more what BC had to deal with, including running the PO.

Name any facet that Carmody was better than CCC.

Offensive efficiency and having a PG.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Maybe BC never hired the right assistant to coach D (don't think it was BC's venue), but BC didn't exactly have enough plus defenders (ironically, he finally did in what would be his last team with Crawford, Swop, Hearn, Lumpkin and Cobb, but injuries and suspension made piecemeal of that team).

Plus the Princeton O is a system not geared towards defensive rebounding (even if you do have the horses), as seen when the Lakers tried to run the PO in what turned out to be a disastrous experiment.

Regarding having the right defensive personnel, BC did try to shake things up, going away from the skilled/Euro-style center and getting more "beef" to bang in Rowley (remember how we were all excited about that class?).

BC's biggest failure recruiting wise was never getting his Pardon, who I had long stated was the most important recruit for the program (in the modern era) along with Juice.





Yeah, think it was more what BC had to deal with, including running the PO.




Offensive efficiency and having a PG.

Not following the PG comment. Boo was an all timer and BMac was exceptional.

I also disagree about offensive efficiency and this had been rehashed plenty of times, the last I believe was a Cappy post showing very similar numbers.

 

[NUThump]

Plus the Princeton O is a system not geared towards defensive rebounding (even if you do have the horses), as seen when the Lakers tried to run the PO in what turned out to be a disastrous experiment.

This would make sense to me if you said offensive rebounding, but why would the offense system prevent defensive rebounds?

 

[EagerFan]

The problem on the defensive rebounding end, imho, was his 1-3-1 trap left Juice under the rim for the rebound and our bigs coming in from the outside. I love me some Juice, but his badass 5'9" struggled to rebound defensively. Sobo was a bit taller, but not as crafty or quick, so basically the same problem.