Posters can be quick point out that CCC turned around the ship when Lowery joined the staff. Well the team is certainly better defensively since then, but we rarely hear about Battles impact on Boo. Without that I doubt we win. How about James work with Big Matt and design of what seem to be the best inbounds plays in the conference? I suspect BMac has had an influence in are offensive sets which Hummel has described as very effective. We have won plenty of games this year because of our offense.
I would also like to add that up to the dismantling of the first tourney team we were a team that resembled a lot more our current tactics:
1) We were hard nosed on defense - probably less than with Lowery, I am a big fan of his, but we were - funny how that often does not depend on players, Beran was a lousy defender who, under Lowery looked like Dennis Rodman. OK, not true, but not the point
2) We played our best guys, a lot, we did not try to keep everyone happy with minutes.
3) I know through all of this, and perhaps making up for some of Collins immaturity, we had a true floor leader in BMac and a hard nosed motherf***** in Sanjay
Somehow, in between we turned to:
1) "We want to play fast", CC's words. We scored 100+ against Chicago State and the TV commentators were lauding our offense as the 8th wonder of the world. We were joining the likes of Creighton and Iowa in play style. Except that was a tragic misreading of our roster
2) We subbed like crazy. First TV timeout and 4 out of 5 were new players.
3) We overplayed let's say our "not best players", Casey Simmons as a freshman played almost as much as he plays as a 3rd year at Yale.
4) We played players out of their natural positions all game long, all year long. Not that others teams don't, not like we don't do it now. But we played them despite having the roster to not be forced into it.
5) We believed zone was a gimmick we could use frequently
6) We were stubborn as f*** and despite horrendous results, we stayed the course. Same 5, same positions.
After all this we course corrected, I tend to believe Collins matured. Took a lot of guts, don't know that almighty Fitz ever showed he could be the same way:
1) Changes to staff
2) Changes back to more of who we used to be
For me CC grew up. Maybe the world needs more environments where ppl have the time to make mistakes, often a lot of them and grow into mature, competent pros.
Through all of this CC always kept a few great qualities
1) Recruited above expected for NU standards
2) It always felt the players liked him and respected him
3) Other than a couple of minor incidents with questions from what amounts to kids, in press conferences, in stressful times, CC is a class act