Give Collins an extension
- Thread starter Pasadena Bound
- Start date
How about the part where Collins looked as if he was going to blurt out "Thank you, sir, May I have another?!?"
Edit: I think Collins and staff have done a remarkable job this year. They deserve a lot of credit. Maybe if we make the Tourney, with this team, it might lead him to get an offer and leave. I still don't believe he deserves an extension yet. Too many loooonnnnggg losing streaks to accept this as the new normal.
I don't expect the tourney every year. Just like I don't expect Fitz to be in a Jan bowl every year. But - people everywhere are accountable for their performance, except for Washington DC and Evanston
Last edited:
Well ru
I guess you’re right, his buyout last year was only $9 million, not $10.
I am suggesting that he would be given a multi year contract of at least 5 years and would not be threatened for at least 3 with each good season resetting things. He has shown that he can recruit even at NU and have to feel he would find it a lot easier wherever he would end up. And that leads to an easier path to success than doing it here
Whole lot different than what he faces and would continue to face here. Even if successful this year, recruiting pretty much gutted for this year and perhaps damaged beyond this year. That weakens the foundation for the future whether CCC is the coach or if he moves on and someone else comes in. If he is gone figure that there would also be an exodus of guys in the program. We have seen that even with the portal, admissions makes it pretty difficult to restock using that approach here.
No one is suggesting that Gragg should not have had said conversations with Collins. Just that the way he did things potentially weakens the program longer term
No one is suggesting an extension yet. The season is not done. Just that at this point threat of dismissal should be off for this year.
And even that is a buyout rather than an annual salary which is what you alluded to
And the indication of that is more for the offseason as that is when anything like that would be done. Not there yet. I am just suggesting that what is appropriate now is the removal of the threat for this year.
I’d take Gragg doing exactly what he did with Collins with Fitz if it led to significant schematic changes and offensive coaching changes by Fitz and big turnaround results. Gragg looks fairly smart to me right now.
That’s a William Foster (main character in Falling Down) moment
To be clear, I would have done what Phillips did. Fitz earned the extension and Collins was a hot property. Maybe too long, but who knew? Their agents negotiated well. That said, Gragg was left with a tough situation and an outgoing president. He's doing his job. I support him. CFB, in particular, does not move at a glacial pace. Waiting too long is disastrous
I am very impressed with what Collins (and Boo) said in the postgame presser. Collins really has grown, is distinctly different from the other revenue head coach.
You are right. Or maybe it's the Clark Kent glasses that make him look so European.
Have to wait for the season to finish; there's up weeks and down weeks in any season and we all knew the schedule would kick up at this point. Best to wait until we have the final result in hand.
I still think NIT alone isn't enough for an extension.
I still think NIT alone isn't enough for an extension.
An NIT bid would be progress...actually fairly significant progress, but I don't understand the call for an extension on that progress. There appear to be at least four years left on his contract, which is in the neighborhood of what you want to provide the balance of some security for recruits and a more limited obligation should you decide to move on.
Postseason basketball of some sort seems like a decent line for the kind of progress that Gragg was talking about wanting to see, but it isn't cause for dancing in the streets and opening the vaults.
He is under contract for 2 more seasons, thru '24-25.
Chris Collins Agrees to 8-year Contract Extension
If there was ever any doubt about Chris Collins staying in Evanston long term, there shouldn’t be now.
www.btpowerhouse.com
Northwestern Extends Chris Collins Through 2024-25 Season - HoopDirt
Northwestern University Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Jim Phillips announced Tuesday the signing of Sullivan-Ubben Head Men’s Basketball Coach Chris Collins to a multi-year contract extension. Collins’ contract has been extended through the 2024-25 campaign. Head Football Coach Pat...
hoopdirt.com
Absolutely no reason for an extension. We don’t know how this season is going to end, and next year looks terrible at this point, unless Boo and Audige return. Plenty of tine to see how things progress — or regress— over the next year or so.
You either give him an extension or sack him. There is no point in keeping him only to fire him in the next 2 years. He already is having trouble recruiting, what decent prospect wants to sign a LOI with a coach who probably won't be around his second or third year? Makes no sense.
Guys who want to graduate from one of America's top academic universities but think they are good enough to play Power 6 hoops.
and didn't get an offer from Duke, Vandy, UNC, Michigan, Stanford, etc.
I think there's a case for seeing how the next year plays out first if we don't make NCAA tournament this year (NIT bid instead at a minimum).
What do you do if we go NIT this year then significant step back next year?
In my opinion he has to make the tournament next year if NIT this year.
Giving an extension without a tournament bid will look foolish in hindsight if we don't make tournament next year.
Would be wonderful to just make the tournament this year and take all this off the table of course, but things may not be so crystal clear.
One of the best press conferences I’ve heard from an NU coach in a long time. It does feel like he’s growing as a leader. Hopefully, he can continue to grow as a tactician.
With a team led by veterans, I don’t see an NIT bid, unless MAYBE it’s a “last four out” NIT #1 bud, representing sufficient progress given the rebuild coming up. This isn’t a “progress” season, this is a top of the rebuild arc season. Unless he can immediately get Boo and Chase to announce they’re staying and go into next year with momentum, it’s insufficient for me to judge on progress, it needs to be results.
That's interesting. I don't think anyone would ever accuse me of being a Collins apologist, but making the NIT this season would definitely be progress. And it's actually results-based progress because the last several years have been so atrocious they didn't really even approach making the NIT. That's what makes this year so stunning. The results are significantly different and better than the last five.
Whether they are sustainable or sufficient remains to be seen and I'd agree with people who suggest that an NIT bid isn't enough to merit an extension.
He still has two years left on his contract. Let him earn his money. You certainly don’t want to give an extension until you see how this season ends and if Buie and Audige are coming back. Let the spring transfer season play out as well. If those two guys don’t come back and there are no transfers of impact, then chances are very good next season is going to be a return to the basement. You sure don’t want to be stuck with a coach under a long-term contract at that point.
Besides I think in this day and age of the portal, no freshmen are signing up feeling they are locked in for four years to any program. And let’s face it, Collins and NU aren’t going to be out recruiting any power programs for players these days. NU is going to be looking for guys who are under-valued and under-recruited. Anybody with Power 5 options is going to be hard to bring here under current circumstances.
If next season is a regression, then you pull the trigger and look for a re-set. Or if Collins surprises everybody and next year is solid, then he’s still under contract for another year, or you can extend at that point.
To me, unless we can keep the whole team together for 2024, it would represent “improvement” but not “progress.” Progress implies building toward something for upcoming years. If the nucleus leaves, then we’re just starting over anyway, we already peaked.
A high NIT bid might be enough for me depending on how it goes if it represents a significant improvement in my faith in CCC’s ability to coach offense. We’ll have to see there. But this doesn’t feel like a building year to me, this is more a last chance year with two vet guards.
Last year was supposed to be "THE year." Collins proclaimed that to anyone who would listen to explain away the 2 seasons prior to that. And it was a disaster relative to reasonable expectations.
People should just read Idaho Alum's comment and see the logic in it.
In the beginning of the season the NIT was a feel good target. By now it will feel a bit underwhelming because it will represent, yet again, another melt down after being 6-3.
The NU administration has 10 years of data on Chris Collins. One more season isn't going to be any more enlightening because he a) turned into the second coming of Coach K, or b) forgot how to coach. At the end of this season Gragg needs to decide whether to extend him or sack him, given the strong statement he made at the end of last season. I buy your arguments about the type of players NU recruits, but even the better of these B-listers will have second thoughts of playing for a lame duck coach. Hard enough to recruit at NU without having uncertainty about the coaching staff.
I think the problem is that you miss the results part of the equation by just focusing on the coaching ability issue.
Collins' tenure is so long at this point that the only way to sustain it is to provide results. It's not entirely about just his ability to coach. Maybe he has really transformed as a coach over the past year, but without results, his tenure is not sustainable given how long it's been and given the poor results of the past 5 years.
If you extend him after an NIT season this year and then next year is a losing season, you have an extended coach that had 6 losing seasons out of 7 with an NIT bid as the lone "successful" season.
Then you're in as bad of a situation as last year where you didn't really want to fire him because he had 3 years left on his contract. He has to get an NCAA bid this year or next year to be able to get an extension, I feel very strongly about that when you consider his entire tenure here. The problem is lack of results even if he's improved as a coach.
There's no reason to fall into a trap like that when he has 2 more years at this moment and as @IdahoAlum points out, a lot of the reasons to have a coach on a long-term contract have changed in terms of recruiting changes and the portal.
I agree with you. it is about results. If it were my decision, I'd sack him. I just don't see any point to kicking the can down the road and giving him one more season. Either sack him or give him an extension. Spit or get off the pot. Or whatever Dad-saying you prefer.....
Yeah I can respect that point of view. I just think there's a gray area this year in terms of an NIT bid where pushing this decision to next year probably has to be done.
Obviously, we're all hoping for an NCAA bid where an extension would be obvious, but it's just not clear yet we're going to get such an obvious finish.
Similar threads
