I don’t disagree. I like we’re football is. I like where basketball is going, but I do think we need to hang on to Collins.
Collins top candidate for Wake
- Thread starter catsattackfor3
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Thank you for the comprehensive argument. On thing to note, however, is the volume and scope of the issue. We are talking about a handful of people every year. Given that small number would there would be no real impact on a professor's ability to craft the lecture that he or she wanted to present to students. Moreover, this handful of people would have access to incredible 1v1 tutoring and mentorship, they would not be left to sink or swim on their own. Finally, I don't think the recruits we would have brought in (to use your words) "cannot reasonably understand the lectures." We were not recruiting people who were functionally illiterate. These were people who graduated from our peer (broadly defined) institutions like Michigan, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Illinois.
If there is a 20-21 season, there is no way we finish last. This team is ready to break out.
he said “lady place,” which sounds more fun than “last place.”
My point is that the discrepancies in admissions criteria between our athletes and the other students are not nearly as great as some people here may perceive. Of course, there may be some variances, but as I said earlier, admissions are made on the basis of personal evaluations considering more than just grades and test scores. That is true of all NU admissions, not just athletes. Clearly, we are only admitting students, including scholarship athletes, whom we believe can succeed at NU. That is great. The sense I have from some posts is that certain fans want to admit athletes whom our admissions people do not believe could succeed. That, in my opinion, would be a mistake and would rob NU of its special character. As an aside, my great friend for almost 50 years went to UW, but has come to know many NU alums both through me and by working in Chicago. He has repeatedly said that the admissions department (Shep Shanley years) did an unbelievable job in admitting great people. They may have been smart, but they were also fun and of high character. I hope that never changes.
Admissions discrepancies between "regular students' and scholarship student athletes are vast.
Word is that James Naismith wanted to commit to NU but didn't have the grades, Henry Bienen wouldn't budge, and Carmody wasn't even on campus when Naismith visited.
This is all so reminiscent of the story of Tommy Amaker way back when interviewing for the NU job. He brought 3 transcripts of players and asked NU these are priority recruits if I get the job could I offer be sure these 3 could be admitted. Admissions said no - the three players who's names had been altered on the transcript were Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Marty Clark
I feel like it’s a better story when Marty Clark’s name is omitted, which is how I heard it circa 2000.
We are an academic institution that happens to play intercollegiate athletics at the highest level. Our priorities reflect that reality. It is part of what makes NU so special. Fitz has embraced it and made it work. I hope that our fans and alumni can as well.
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From an NU alumni perspective that sentence sounds “normal” and might even evoke some pride. From an outsider perspective it easily comes across as elitist as fu#$
I doubt they finish last - hell, they went 8-23 this year and didn't finish last - but I also doubt they get out of playing on BTT Wednesday.
Grant Hill and Christian Laettner. Enuf said. They both were interested in NU when I was a student. I was told they didn't qualify academically. If they had, we might have become the Duke's of basketball.
What I’ve heard is that every great Duke player starting with Jay Bilas and continuing to Chris Duhon preferred Northwestern but couldn’t get in. Also, Elton Brand had assured KON that the NU degree meant a ton to him, but that the Duke degree didn’t, so we would have gotten four years out of him. KON fled for the NBA out of frustration.
Bill Carmody agreed to come to NU only if he had the guarantee that those academic standards could be more like Duke’s (which is to say, ncaa minimums), but then he failed to show up for 11 consecutive official visits, and when he showed up for the 12th he said, “our locker rooms are embarrassing — still wanna come here?” and then shrugged and went home. You wonder why he’d even demand the loosening of standards, you know?
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Chris Dijon couldn't mustard the necessary grades, apparently ... sorry.
Yeah, this guy probably has legit information. He coached at South Carolina, Boston College and a few other places. He does the media circuit pretty frequently and I'm sure he knows people. Tough to argue there's not something. How close it is to happening is another story.
This is false. My understanding is the threshold for ACT scores for basketball/football is ~24. The average for NU as a whole is 33. (It’s out of 36.)
No disagreement here. I’ve long been a proponent of giving coaches as much “leash” as they want so long as team academic achievement remains high, but that’s just not how the administration sees things.
Isn't that entirely what the current basketball team is made up of? Tell me which lazy, low-character brainiacs we should kick off the current team to make room for these superstars trying to break down the doors to take NU to the final four.
If there's still NU basketball in 20 years, we'll probably still be debating admissions standards. Everyone agrees the requirements should be, and are, vastly lower than they are for the general student population. And this gap has only widened as NU has become far more selective overall since 1995. We disagree on the extent to which they should be lower, and whether they should be higher than our competitors, whether in the Big 10 or among similarly positioned private universities that compete at the highest level of athletics.
My main point is that there is nothing new to this discussion. Collins knew this when he arrived. If he didn't, then he has only himself to blame. We all know the Amaker story. Surely Collins has learned the situation by now. If he's concluded that he can no longer win at NU for this reason, and he's seeking other jobs or at least floating his name for them, then It's not tenable for him to stay. I hope he still wants to be here and believes he can win here.
My main point is that there is nothing new to this discussion. Collins knew this when he arrived. If he didn't, then he has only himself to blame. We all know the Amaker story. Surely Collins has learned the situation by now. If he's concluded that he can no longer win at NU for this reason, and he's seeking other jobs or at least floating his name for them, then It's not tenable for him to stay. I hope he still wants to be here and believes he can win here.
I thought they’d be looking at him, as well as other big up and comers. Much easier sell than Collins. If he fails, at least he was an hire that made sense on paper.
IMO the student body is less diverse than its ever been. Not just talking about skin color. As the school has become more selective, it seems to choose the same type of kid whether from Beijing, Santa Monica or Naperville. I'd argue that a the kids on campus would learn more about the world if NU worked to bring in a more diverse population. Sports...all sports....are part of the solution.
U of C dropped standardized tests a year or so ago. That's new. And pretty revolutionary. Schools talk about the holistic admissions process....I'd like to see NU do a better job at bringing in more non traditional NU students....kids that can succeed and thrive there....and do so with deeper analysis of applicants.
The Liberty kid....angers me that there isn't a place for him on NU's campus basketball or no basketball.
I take away only one thing from yesterday's Facebook interview. He's not shopping around.
This might be too incredibly simplistic, but nobody who wants to win employment - especially against a younger group - grows a gray corona goatee.
That's a guy who's comfortable.
How does a guy who has gone 13-45 in conference play in the last three seasons really shop myself around? I mean, I’m sure he’s answering the phone if it rings, but it’s hard to imagine he’s got a ton to sell right now. His best bet is to catch one of the 5* kids in 2021 and ride them to another flash in the pan season that he can flip into a new gig at a program where he has a better shot at sustaining success.
Vassar makes a good point about 13-45. But it's also obvious some want to push him out the door.
I can understand mixed feelings about Chrissy. I can accept those and agree with many of them. But the 4 or 5 people who started this parade in '17-'18 or earlier need a reality check. It's obvious that's more than a basketball thing
My other cheap theory when wondering if someone wants to leave ... aaaaaaaaaaaaalways look at the age of the coach's kids.
I can understand mixed feelings about Chrissy. I can accept those and agree with many of them. But the 4 or 5 people who started this parade in '17-'18 or earlier need a reality check. It's obvious that's more than a basketball thing
My other cheap theory when wondering if someone wants to leave ... aaaaaaaaaaaaalways look at the age of the coach's kids.
