Remember when a number of people wanted to run Collins out of town because of not being able to win one like last night?
- Thread starter hdhntr1
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I do! That's how I felt. This was my first thought after last night's satisfying win. Great job by the team, especially Boo, and Coach Collins.
I was one of them and I’ve never been more happy to eat crow in my life lol. Also, for as much crap as Gragg gets he deserves a ton of credit for keeping CC when the winds were very much pushing in the direction of firing him.
We all remember and some are still getting there. I mentioned in another thread I was more nervous when the Cats were up one than when they were down one. Just used to them blowing leads for 30 years. Not anymore!
Credit the buyout, not Gragg.
Boo has practically erased all of my memories of Carmody giving Crawford the ball at the top of the key, and watching Drew fail both to make an effective move, and then to make the shot.
Boo is a remarkable player. Blew by his guy for the game winner, made a 16-foot floater, just because, a few minutes before.
I remember the Salem witch trials.
Turns out, none of those people were made out of wood.
Turns out, none of those people were made out of wood.
I don't want to ruin the good feelings of this thread as I am happy with Collins too, but he really hasn't changed anything in how he handles late, close games. The difference is that he now has an individual who can execute in these moments.
Yup! I was one. And he has been so much better since he was publicly put on the hot seat. All those folks that disapproved have been proven wrong with hire God the results have been.
@ Michigan, right? No shade towards Crawford, of course. He was a very good player, but Boo can do things that we have rarely seen on the court over the years at NU.
The only way to know for sure is to see if they weigh the same as a duck!
Maybe but I have a feeling a rich donor would have taken care of that no issue. So credit is due to DG.
Not from my perspective. He screwed Collins for that recruiting class. His public 'shaming" of Collins or, perhaps more likely, "ass covering" for himself was bush league and bad for the program. Should have been done privately.
Assistant coaches need a shout out as well. They helped Collins out a bunch.
One concern I have is if NU get a bid this year, other teams will come after Battle and Lowry.
One concern I have is if NU get a bid this year, other teams will come after Battle and Lowry.
Ggarg strikes me as a real operator, and not in a good way. He threw the entire football team under the bus based on little more than allegation. He completely ignored the complaints of the baseball team about the toxic waste dump of the coach he hired. He’s just bad for NU Athletics.
True, but that only means we’ve been doing well. Have to give Collins credit for the hires and trust him to replace them with good hires.
Lowery was pretty darn bad as a head man at SIU. I think he’s happy as a well-paid defensive genius.
It’s tough to know the others’ specific roles, but certainly Mc and Battle have a lot of characteristics that would make them appealing to other schools.
I like the idea of B-Mac and Battle suiting up if they need extra players during practice.
Basketball isn’t that tactically complex. The better players tend to prevail. Collins has a similar philosophy to Knight and Coach K in late game situations in that my players know what to do better than the other players and calling a timeout gives the opponent time to get coached up. Boo is often proving him right.
That’s life in the big city.
As a young Manager, our CEO asked what concerned me about my role. I said everyone is recruiting my top members and offering significant pay bumps. He said, “If they weren’t recruiting your team, you wouldn’t be doing your job”. I never had that thought again.
That's a good thing. It's a sign of a healthy program, and it will encourage up-and-coming young coaches to want to work for CCC.
My favorite Lowery quote is this about his head coaching run at SIU...
“Our business is about wins and losses,” Lowery said. “If you don’t win enough, you should be fired. I deserved to be fired."
Other quotes after Lowery's first season with Collins...
“It was just, Coach Collins said he wanted to double the post, and he goes, ‘I know where you’re from, coming from your coaching family,’” Lowery said. “‘That’s what they do. They double the post, so I want to implement that in what we do.’”
“[It was] not only Coach [Collins], but the team in itself helped with the transition,” Lowery said. “Everything was already in play with them transcending toward this change in the program. So I came at the right time. We were already rolling toward the right direction anyway.”
“He’s brought an aggressiveness, a grit and a toughness that I thought we needed,” Collins said. “I did a deep dive... about what we needed to do get better in terms of getting over the hump and being this caliber of team, and I felt like our toughness needed to improve. We needed to guard better and we needed to be more physical, and I think those are all areas that he really brings to the table. That’s what he’s always been about with his teams.”
“I think this is who we are now,” Lowery said. “Defensively, we want to be this good always. And I think that’s the biggest thing I can bring to this program.”
This helps paint the picture of why I can’t stand the comparisons of basketball coaches and football coaches. Football is much more tactically complex sport where there are tons of different schemes and nuances within the schemes both offensively and defensively and assistant coaches specialize in these schemes. Basketball tends to have the scheme set by the head coach and the assistant coaches coach the fundamentals within that scheme and really impact the culture of the team through recruiting and coaching.
The above quotes really help show how much Lowery positively impacts this teams mentality and culture. He buys into his head coaches scheme and coaches to the best of his ability within it. The players follow suit. I don’t like the Hank comparisons because it’s a completed different role. Lowery was/is a great hire for differing reasons. Very strong defensive culture impact. Very good at coaching defensive positioning. He didn’t draw up and totally design NU’s scheme. I don’t think it lessens his impact it’s just different.
One thing I think is true about this current version of this year's and last year's team is that they are rather tough. I sometimes waiver in my faith in that statement because I'm so used to so many NU teams that for years were not particularly tough. But I think I am coming to believe that this group really is.
The real test of CC will come post Boo. He’s going to need to show he can continue to build the program and maintain versus just have a couple good years when he has a crunch time performer.
It took them a couple of year to get Boo where he is now. Hopefully, Collins and staff have a plan.
Would like to see him get Hunger get double digit minutes and learn if possible. He could be a difference maker the next couple of years. Getting consistent points from the 5.
Would like to see him get Hunger get double digit minutes and learn if possible. He could be a difference maker the next couple of years. Getting consistent points from the 5.
The real test is this season. Back to Back bids should quiet the critics at least through the first month of next year. We are not blessed with top recruits or ultra elite athletes like other programs. Making it this year would be a good accomplishment. Next season will be far more challenging and barring a real stud transfer I doubt we are dancing. Let’s not forget the public admonishing of CCC neutered last seasons class.
Hopefully back to back bids give him more pull in the portal after this season. Need to be able to go past the sort of perfect for NU guys like Langborg
Gragg gets zero credit dude. Wasn’t his call and then hung Collins out to dry publicly, which was a mistake for recruiting purposes.
Ggarg is about saving Ggarg’s ass. He’d throw his own dog under the bus.
That was when Gragg lost me. It was bush league and destroyed recruiting for two years a. (one for the class of that year not wanting to commit to someone that was likely to not be there and the second because recruiting starts the year before) You can see it in those two classes. Hopefully he found some diamonds but basically the players were pretty much unrated
It was when Gragg lost me and showed what a worthless POS he is. It was a Bush League move and cost dearly in recruiting. Hopefully Collins and company found some diamonds because basically it set recruiting way way back. In the recent two classes guys were basically unrated with only a couple power conference offers between them. For the class of 2023, guys were not going to commit to someone they felt that there was a good chance they were not going to be there and the 2024 class because recruiting for that would have started during the meat of the controversy. Enjoy this year because it will be hard to be competitive for a while after this group of upper class men move on
The portal could at least theoretically help offset the recruiting for those classes. I believe 5 of the top 8 rotation players for Illinois are there via the portal
Not likely. Admissions isn’t exactly friendly to undergrad transfers.
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