Now that team overachieved and for all the grief we've all leveled at Collins recently, he gets all the credit today. That team played like they believed all game long and that is a reflection of the coach more than anything. Kudos Wildcats!
Credit Coach Collins
- Thread starter MC_Cat
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Just a huge W and the team proved to themselves they can win conference games. After the MD game, it seemed they were just not tough enough. Now there is new life in them. Maybe there will be an exciting season after all. It would have been easy to despair after the MD game, it would have been easy to give up on CCC, it would have been easy for CCC to give up. Instead, there is new life. It's hard to tell how good the coaches are that always get the talent they need. OTOH, there's CCC - that's coaching, Wildcats.
Those who watched this game have earned a Croix de Northwestern. You gotta be an NU fan to hang in there facing the recent disasters.
Those who watched this game have earned a Croix de Northwestern. You gotta be an NU fan to hang in there facing the recent disasters.
I'm very pleased we won today.
It had nothing to do with Collins.
He would not have played Young and he would never have played Nicholson. We would have lost again.
Fate or a Higher Power intervened and FORCED the coach to play guys he does not appreciate whatsoever.
And they put it in his face, playing with a passion that other guys (preferred by the coach) just don't have.
The snubbed players took it upon themselves to prove their coach wrong and we got a much-deserved win.
Ok, you disagree. But do you believe MN plays if nance and Williams are healthy? Do we continue to see more of nance at the 5? Do they continue the fast pace that they have pursued all year?
Dont be one of those chumps who says something is "ridiculous" but doesn't offer any explanation as to why.
Collins has cost us 2-3 games in the league with his poor coaching decisions around personnel.
We won yesterday because the players no longer had to follow Collins rule #1 - "get Nance the ball" and played with grit, determination and passion, instead of watching Pete.
Not blaming Nance. He's our best player. Blaming the coach for making it clear that he thinks Nance is the only guy worth a damn (just like many of his supporters).
I thought we you were gaining some more common ground with some posters, but posts like this set you back. It’s not true and one ever said / believes that only Nance gets the ball and that he’s the only guy worth a damn. Where do you come up with this stuff? The obvious result from yesterday is that Collins was able to motivate ALL of his team in the face of an adverse situation, and they met/exceeded the challenge because he has developed ALL of these players.
I thought Beran played fairly well.
He has been coming on lately, despite a big setback in the Ohio State game.
I think it is possible he has finally turned the corner, which would be awesome.
The majority of people on this board are convinced that a) our talent is not comparable to the league average b) Nance is the only guy on the team who would start for any decent team in the Big Ten.
That bothers me because it is clearly false and deliberately degrading to our guys.
The fact remains that Nance didn't play and our guys played with more passion than they have all year (and gutted out a win). Anybody who thinks Young and Nicholson would have combined for more than 15 minutes against the Spartans without Nance getting injured is not paying attention.
And we would have lost.
Does that help?
Gotta use Nicholson, Roper, Simmons, young and Berry a lot more! Buie, Williams, Nance less.
We play #13 Wis on tuesday...correct?? At home?? This may be the nexus of a critical nature that may set the tone for our potentially saving this season?? Can we pull off some more upsets and actually beat the teams that we are supposed to?? I say yes. And I hope CCC stays our coach for many more years if this is the case.
Most people, including Lou, thought we were going to get killed without Nance and Williams. They obviously thought our chances were better with Nance. You don’t?
Good post.
Anyone criticizing CC’s after this win is off base, imho. There’s a time and place, but ain’t now.
Matt Nicholoson’s played much better than I expected. Hustled and made some nice plays here and there, but didn’t show much offensively and was out of position several times in post defensively. The kid is green and these issues should be expected. Interested to see what he can do under James’ tutiledge, but there’s a reason he hasn’t seen much time to date. MN is small spurts could be intriguing going forward, though.
Ryan Young was essential to today’s victory and should get more run the rest of the season, but for all his heart, he can get overmatched athletically by certain opponents; missed some bunnies and fumbled a few catches in the post. Doesn’t take away from an outstanding individual performance or the time he’s put in to create a fun, throwback offensive game (he has ALL the 70s post moves!), but I get why he doesn’t play 30+ minutes every outing. That being said, the offense should run through him at times in most match ups.
What stood out most to me yesterday was the intensity the ‘Cats played with on the defensive end. Reminiscent of the road upsets early in Collins’ tenure. The players and staff knew the only way they could win was to limit Michigan State’s transition game and then do just enough to disrupt their half court sets where they are surprisingly prone to silly errors. This is obviously easier said than done, yet NU pulled it off due the reasons stated above combined with some clutch shooting at key moments.
This was, without a doubt, as much a team effort as you can ask for. Credit to the entire operation, players and staff.
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As I stated, I think Nance is our best player.
He deserves to play a lot.
I just think we have other weapons.
When Nance is playing, he tends to be the focus of the offense.
I even suspect that the "hero ball" mentality is worse when Buie, Audige and Nance are out there together, trying to outscore each other.
Is it a chemistry issue? Personality clashes? Jealousy? Coach delivering the wrong message? I don't know, but its pretty clear that Buie, Audige, Young, Beran, Roper and even Nicholson and Barnhizer were willing to go to war for each other against the Spartans.
And that sort of passion has not existed in our prior games.
It is refreshing to win a street fight. Not pretty, but effective.
My point about Nance was that had he been healthy, Collins would have done exactly what he did in every previous game, getting us to 1-4 when we should have been no worse than 3-2 in the Big Ten. Fate intervened and (hopefully) the season has turned around.
Of course we have other weapons.
“Hero ball” when Buie, Audige and Nance are out there? Just because they take some bad shots once in a while does not mean it’s hero ball.
Please prove there are are chemistry issues, personality clashes or jealousy.
I agree an adverse situation appears to have motivated the team. Credit to Collins, as the kids believe in themselves and his system, even despite the rough start. Too bad you think they could not have won despite this, but you are entitled to the opinion, and we’ll never know.
I could literally point you to dozens of posts that complain that Nance didn’t get enough touches in a given half.
I would argue that when RY is in the game, he’s much more a singular focus of the offense than PN (sometimes that’s because he’s the only option, but still).
Agree, Pete needs to get the ball more. Whether that is on the Coach running specific sets or Pete not demanding the ball from his teammates, he NEEDs to be focus of the offense.
Here's what I'm talking about... conference games only...
You can describe this as "selfish" or "most confident" or "best" or "hero ball" but the guys who shoot most frequently are Buie, Audige and Nance. On the other end of the spectrum are the guys who would rather not shoot - Greer and Roper.
| Player | FGA/40 mins |
| Chase Audige | 18.7 |
| Pete Nance | 17.4 |
| Boo Buie | 15.9 |
| Ryan Young | 13.7 |
| Elyjah Williams | 12.9 |
| Matt Nicholson | 12.3 |
| Robbie Beran | 10.1 |
| Ty Berry | 9.6 |
| Casey Simmons | 9.6 |
| Brooks Barnhizer | 7.3 |
| Ryan Greer | 6.9 |
| Julian Roper | 5.9 |
Sorry White Boy, trying to stay away from your Nicholson posts because I know there will be 1000 more when he gets less time when Pete returns, but there was no way I could let this one go.
Chemistry issues. Personality clashes. Jealousy. You got to be kidding me! So you speculate this due to what? The teams 3 best players take a lot of shots? There’s a revelation. So Boo and Chase decided they didn’t need to compete for shots because Pete wasn’t in there. WTF.
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Please, for once, just consider the value of trying not to get the last word, especially when your opinion is so unsupportable. This looks like as reasonable distribution of FGA as any team could ever have.
Yeah, we aren’t talking about the ideal distribution of receptions in football’s air raid offense. NU is perfectly fine in this category.
Trying to use that data to imply there is some sort of potential issue with the way certain athletes are playing is complete and utter nonsense.
Not cool.
Wow, what a mindblowing statistic, our best players take the most shots on the team.
For all the substitution debates and who should/shouldn't be playing the decision to play Roper down the stretch may have been the best one. He played the last nine minutes and his defense on Christie was fantastic. We saw what happened down the stretch against Maryland when Greer was in there for an extended period of time. It didn't go well. Glad they gave the young guy the opportunity.
Completely agree except it would be helpful if Berry got a few more quality shots per game as he has a great stroke when he’s squared up & reasonably set to shoot.
It's true and Roper's last rebound was poster worthy. But, IMO, CC should have put MN in for that rebound
Best is a concept that is highly debatable. If you put an EFG% column next to those numbers, you will probably conclude Audige, for example, takes too many shots.
Some of you guys are pretty funny, the way you just make things up and say that I said them. Then you argue with that.
I posted the "Shots per 40 minutes" numbers to show definitively that Nance, Buie and Audige are the most willing or eager to take shots.
In no way does that make them our best players.
It just means they shoot the most frequently.
How can you not get that?
I posted the "Shots per 40 minutes" numbers to show definitively that Nance, Buie and Audige are the most willing or eager to take shots.
In no way does that make them our best players.
It just means they shoot the most frequently.
How can you not get that?
In part it is based on Audige screaming at Buie.
In part it is based on Nance and Buie yelling at each other late in the 2nd Maryland game.
In part it is based on watching how players react to each other when they succeed or screw up.
In part it is based on observing how some players seem reluctant to pass to other players.
I compare those personal interactions to things like Ryan Young chest bumping all 4 of his teammates after a big basket late in the MSU game. It is (at times) obvious which players like each other.
Lastly, my daughter attends NU and she recently talked to one of the guys on the team. He expressed a few thoughts about his teammates and his coach, how players view the coach, his relative level of happiness... so that info has me looking to confirm (or reject) what the player said.
You can't put that out there and not elaborate.
So please share said thoughts. I'm quite interested.
Have you ever played on a high level athletic team? I would be way more concerned if there wasn’t internal expectations and emotions. Furthermore, I was at the Maryland game and didn’t notice any screaming/ yelling between players that would lead me to conclude there was internal strife. There were so few people in attendance that you could hear a lot of the back an forth. I may have missed it, but don’t recall you or any other poster referencing players yelling at each other until your mention in this thread. If Chest Bumping teammates was a sign of happiness, then Miller Kopp would be Fred Rogers. Not surprisingly, I disagree with all 4 “parts” of the analysis.
Please tell me your daughter wasn’t talking to Matt Nicholson or a walk on.
We throw rocks at him when NU loses games they should have won. We need to throw roses at his feet when he pulls one out of his a$$.
Nance is our only true star. IDC if his absence "forced Collins' hand". They point is, he played his hand well for this game, beating a top 10 team.
Side note, the last time we won at Breslin was the day I was part of a huge RIF (33% of workforce). Right during the financial meltdown. Fun memories.
Nance is our only true star. IDC if his absence "forced Collins' hand". They point is, he played his hand well for this game, beating a top 10 team.
Side note, the last time we won at Breslin was the day I was part of a huge RIF (33% of workforce). Right during the financial meltdown. Fun memories.
Unfortunately I can't elaborate.
It was definitely interesting to hear the player's comments, but nothing good would come of airing the details.
I probably should have kept it to myself in the first place, given the "shoot the messenger" mentality of some of the people on here.
I suppose I can report the positive part - "The guys are pretty much all good guys and get along really well."
On the other end of the spectrum are the guys who would rather not shoot - Greer and Roper.
"Rather not shoot" is exactly right. Part of the reason Buie and Audige have to put up so many shots, sometimes bad ones, is that so many of the other players are just unwilling to take a shot. The two you mention (Greer being the worst offender) plus Simmons, and even Berry for stretches just won't shoot. That leads to Buie or Audige firing shots late in the shot clock or taking the early semi-open shot for fear that there won't be a better shot later after one of the others dribbles away the shot-clock.
"Rather not shoot" is exactly right. Part of the reason Buie and Audige have to put up so many shots, sometimes bad ones, is that so many of the other players are just unwilling to take a shot. The two you mention (Greer being the worst offender) plus Simmons, and even Berry for stretches just won't shoot. That leads to Buie or Audige firing shots late in the shot clock or taking the early semi-open shot for fear that there won't be a better shot later after one of the others dribbles away the shot-clock.
Why does every opinion have to equate to personal feelings?
You know better than I do about how I feel about people?
You must be an amazing fortune teller.
I explained my logic. Some of us have been begging Collins to change his lineup and use Young more at the 5. He has gone the other way, slashing Young's minutes (and losing).
Fate intervenes and forces Collins to play Young at the 5 and bring Nicholson in as his backup. Exactly what "we" have been pleading for.
We win a stunner.
And you want me to credit the coach???
No different than if Nance had fouled out of a game when we were getting beaten and benchwarmer Young came in to rally the team to a victory.
If anything, it confirms what fair-minded people have been saying about Collins' misuse of his roster.
