I was really relieved the Cats pulled out the win Sunday over Illinois. They may well beat Iowa tonight and start a climb to the upper middle of the conference, or they may lose a close one and be on the brink of a spiral down, which is the main reason I am writing this post.
Watching the team this year, I have been scratching my head. Two players, Pardon and Law, are great examples of the best of the Collins years. They have both developed, play with heart as well as skill, and seem to both embody leadership when they are on the floor. There are two transfers, Turner and Taylor, who were clearly recruited to plug holes and bring a higher level of talent than the Cats have generally put on the floor in the course of the almost 50 years I have followed them. Finally, there is the rest of the roster, with playing time and roles varying from night to night, clearly missing some areas of skill that one of the last few year’s point guard recruiting misses would have been hoped to fill.
As a team, the design has seemed a little incoherent to me. They are more athletically talented than maybe any NU team in 50 years, but some nights the defensive scheme breaks down, some nights there seems to be little movement in the half court, most nights there are breakdowns in ball handling, and in a few recent games the substitution patterns have left the team gassed and unable to finish.
The long and short of it is that it appears to me that The Chris Collins tenure as NU’s Coach is at a crossroads.
I am hard pressed to think of who could have had even a possibility of the success Collins has brought the Cats since his hiring. The Cats have had certifiably top tier coaches (Winters and Foster) who could not recruit players, a coach whose technical skill (Carmody) brought them to the edge of competitiveness, but no one has been able to bring in the talent Collins has, even with its degree of incompletion, and get to the tournament. I really feel that he brought, from a marketing perspective, a unique confluence of credibility (the long Duke connection and the association in the Chicago area with his Dad’s success) at a time the university was both enjoying some success in football and investing in facilities, making it all attractive to incoming players. He was the right person for a unique time.
Having said that, I think the limitations he has as a coach, both tactically and strategically, are becoming apparent. From a tactical perspective, he sometimes seems to lose control of situations and matchups as a game wears on, and the game slips away. From a strategic perspective, he has made some poor recruiting decisions at point guard, and I question whether his decision to deploy the two transfers this year rather than going to ground and rebuilding, with younger players gaining experience, is a wise one.
It is possible the Cats will right the ship and this team will start to excel. As a long time fan though, what I have seen on the floor this year, and what I read about off the floor (I have no insider knowledge at all) has been disappointing to me. Rather than watch the games live, I have been recording and zipping through them, in large part because outside of Law and Pardon, I find little compelling to me. If the season continues as it has gone so far, I would not be too disappointed if Collins found a greener grass situation, and NU, with a rebuilt arena and some talent in the current classes, found someone who could rebuild the team’s identity and rekindle my interest.
Watching the team this year, I have been scratching my head. Two players, Pardon and Law, are great examples of the best of the Collins years. They have both developed, play with heart as well as skill, and seem to both embody leadership when they are on the floor. There are two transfers, Turner and Taylor, who were clearly recruited to plug holes and bring a higher level of talent than the Cats have generally put on the floor in the course of the almost 50 years I have followed them. Finally, there is the rest of the roster, with playing time and roles varying from night to night, clearly missing some areas of skill that one of the last few year’s point guard recruiting misses would have been hoped to fill.
As a team, the design has seemed a little incoherent to me. They are more athletically talented than maybe any NU team in 50 years, but some nights the defensive scheme breaks down, some nights there seems to be little movement in the half court, most nights there are breakdowns in ball handling, and in a few recent games the substitution patterns have left the team gassed and unable to finish.
The long and short of it is that it appears to me that The Chris Collins tenure as NU’s Coach is at a crossroads.
I am hard pressed to think of who could have had even a possibility of the success Collins has brought the Cats since his hiring. The Cats have had certifiably top tier coaches (Winters and Foster) who could not recruit players, a coach whose technical skill (Carmody) brought them to the edge of competitiveness, but no one has been able to bring in the talent Collins has, even with its degree of incompletion, and get to the tournament. I really feel that he brought, from a marketing perspective, a unique confluence of credibility (the long Duke connection and the association in the Chicago area with his Dad’s success) at a time the university was both enjoying some success in football and investing in facilities, making it all attractive to incoming players. He was the right person for a unique time.
Having said that, I think the limitations he has as a coach, both tactically and strategically, are becoming apparent. From a tactical perspective, he sometimes seems to lose control of situations and matchups as a game wears on, and the game slips away. From a strategic perspective, he has made some poor recruiting decisions at point guard, and I question whether his decision to deploy the two transfers this year rather than going to ground and rebuilding, with younger players gaining experience, is a wise one.
It is possible the Cats will right the ship and this team will start to excel. As a long time fan though, what I have seen on the floor this year, and what I read about off the floor (I have no insider knowledge at all) has been disappointing to me. Rather than watch the games live, I have been recording and zipping through them, in large part because outside of Law and Pardon, I find little compelling to me. If the season continues as it has gone so far, I would not be too disappointed if Collins found a greener grass situation, and NU, with a rebuilt arena and some talent in the current classes, found someone who could rebuild the team’s identity and rekindle my interest.
