Takeaways: Barnhizer dominates in 71-60 win over Georgia Tech after losing front teeth
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
The point is the idea of firing him was misplaced when you looked beyond just W/L. I spent years supporting a position that things were not as bad when you looked deeper, and was ultimately supported, per PWB’s earlier comment. It was not because of some inherent bias toward CCC; I just was inclined to believe in him based on what my eyes were seeing, and the data also backed it up.
I didn't want to seem overly optimistic and I couldn't figure out how many games we had to play to win the Big Ten tournament AND the NCAA tournament, so I just figured we win the next 20, then win the Big Ten tournament before eventually losing in the NCAA.
I did like the 19-1 Big Ten record, but the "4" in the overall loss column threw me.
The Allstate year was a failure. It should’ve been a tournament-caliber team, no doubt about it. But injuries, egos, and the lack of a true home court just wrecked everything. When you look at the expectations versus the reality of that season, it was probably the worst outcome for what should have been a promising team. And honestly, that’s probably Collin’s worst year as a coach.
Now, you know, after that, there was gonna be a drop-off anyway. That’s just part of the cycle in building a program. You lose your core players (sans Law) from that first tournament team, and suddenly, you’re left scrambling for Starting Big Ten-level talent. Outside of Pardon, we didn’t land that caliber of player, and some of that comes down to Collin being a younger coach, and of course, the challenges NU’s historically faced, academics, lack of history, all of it.
But after that rough patch, we started seeing some real progress. We brought in a solid class that contributed to competitive teams. Then, boom, we get the GOAT, and things started clicking, the results showed gradual improvement.
Then came the ultimatum. It hurt some recruiting momentum, and the losing during the rebuild didn’t help either. But with hits on on four strong recruiting classes in a row It gave us a real shot at making a third straight tournament this year, which is huge. Just some questions about the sophomore class which could leave a hole in the team next year. 2/3 left at NU. Neither has played a ton of meaningful minutes yet, or project to this season. We shall see how it turns out.
