Collins close to deal with Northwestern

hawkfan33 said:
Amaker wanted the Northwestern job before Carmody got it, I think a lot of Duke guys have thought they could turn NW into the Duke of the B10. But it's really ******* hard to do, the coaching talent in this league is outstanding right now, any time an assistant becomes a head coach there's going to be some growing pains, but there's just no room for error in this conference and a first time head coach would make me very nervous.
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(1) There is always room for error at Northwestern. Their entire sports history has been a series of errors.

(2) Collins was an assistant for a long, long time. And he grew up around coaching. I don't think it will take him long to get up to speed and make the jump from an assistant to head coach.
 
I really liked his father, Doug when he played for the Sixers with Dr J. He was nominated on the starting team for the East in the All Star Game, and conceded the honor to John Havlicek of the Celtics who was playing his last season. Very classy thing to do.....

:)
 
hawkfan33 said:
Amaker wanted the Northwestern job before Carmody got it, I think a lot of Duke guys have thought they could turn NW into the Duke of the B10. But it's really ******* hard to do, the coaching talent in this league is outstanding right now, any time an assistant becomes a head coach there's going to be some growing pains, but there's just no room for error in this conference and a first time head coach would make me very nervous.
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Hey don't knock Amaker, he did us a favor by knocking ole hair gel out of the tournament with a team from Harvard. :D

Again, what other choices should Northwestern have considered? If I am an AD of a Big Ten school looking for a new Head Coach Collins would be on my short list of candidates. Obviously Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart are not coming here so of the rest of the coaching candidates getting a name like Collins who is from Chicago and has a well known father who has coached in the NBA is about the best I can expect to get.

But hey, I hope you are right and Northwestern sinks and stays at the bottom of the conference.
 
Smells like the SA hire....cept SA had head coaching experience and had took a team to the Sweet Sixteen.

Flashy name, gonna work,right? nah. No guarantee....I think Iowa is going to enjoy going against NW a lot more now.
 
ssckelley said:
Hey don't knock Amaker, he did us a favor by knocking ole hair gel out of the tournament with a team from Harvard. :D

Again, what other choices should Northwestern have considered? If I am an AD of a Big Ten school looking for a new Head Coach Collins would be on my short list of candidates. Obviously Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart are not coming here so of the rest of the coaching candidates getting a name like Collins who is from Chicago and has a well known father who has coached in the NBA is about the best I can expect to get.

But hey, I hope you are right and Northwestern sinks and stays at the bottom of the conference.
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I think you have to get someone with head coaching experience. With the coaching talent in the B10 right now, I would not want this to be my new hires first head job. Northwestern could have gotten any number of mid major guys, not the Smarts or Marshalls of the world but there's plenty of solid coaches out there who have experience running their own program. Honestly, I would have looked really hard at Amaker. He struggled at Michigan but he's done well at Harvard, and he has recruited very well there too so you would have a guy that knows what it takes to compete in the B10 and has dealt with recruiting with the kind of academic restrictions NW has.
 
I agree on Amaker, he would have made an interesting choice as well and I think someone will eventually give him another chance on the higher level. But I still cannot blame Northwestern for rolling the dice with Collins.
 
Could Collins be a good coach? Sure. Will he get Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament and at least a mid-level team in the B1G? Probably not. Unless they relax their academic requirements. He won't be stealing kids from the Duke's of the world.
 
I think Coach K wants him to get some head coaching experience before taking over the reigns in Durham so he's not learning on the fly ala HairGel Boy.
 
WindsorHawk said:
NW has to have an angle to be competitive in Big Ten hoops IMO. Carmody ran a gimmicky system on both ends of the floor. He could make the sum of the parts better than the individual pieces. Collins may be a great coach but I think any coach will struggle at NW. I predict NW will be reminiscing about the good old days of Carmody sooner rather than later.
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My thoughts exactly. How is this a "good hire"? Guy has zero head coaching experience. It worked for Freddy, but NW ain't ISU.

Bernstein: Collins A Risk For Northwestern « CBS Chicago

On the other hand, I can't imagine the pool of candidates was overflowing.
 
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nationalchamps said:
I think Coach K wants him to get some head coaching experience before taking over the reigns in Durham so he's not learning on the fly ala HairGel Boy.
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Wojo is going to be the next Duke coach, that is why Collins moved on, he came to the realization that he isn't getting that gig.
 
IowaFan81 said:
Could Collins be a good coach? Sure. Will he get Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament and at least a mid-level team in the B1G? Probably not. Unless they relax their academic requirements. He won't be stealing kids from the Duke's of the world.
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I doubt that happens but improving their facilities would help.
 
ssckelley said:
That is about as big of a name Northwestern could ever hope to get. Collins is from the suburbs of Chicago so he should be able to recruit, he did help Duke land Jon Scheyer & Sean Dockery from Chicago, and he comes from a fine coaching pedigree. He has served his time as an assistant and associate head coach, it is time to see what he has got.
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Duke landed Scheyer and Dockery. A place like Duke doesn't recruit kids, they turn kids away.

Collins, like all the other Duke assistants before him, is going to find that out pretty fast. And I suspect his results are going to match those of the other Duke assistants as well.

Heck, he wasn't even a good enough assistant to be Coach K's hand picked successor. That honor is going to Wojo, which is the main reason Collins is leaving Duke.
 
I can't wait to see Northwestern's team under Chris Collins' control. He will bring Wojo along as an assistant and then proceed to recruit completely over-rated white guys who like to fist pump and slap the ground while playing defense. The only problem will be is that there will not be any Grant Hills or Elton Brands to piggy back them to victories. I love this hire for Iowa- my only concern is that I believe Northwestern will be relaxing their academic standards to get him. Collins would be an idiot to leave Coach K's womb unless NU promised to let him bring in less stellar students and upgrade facilities.
 
JonnyGuido said:
I can't wait to see Northwestern's team under Chris Collins' control. He will bring Wojo along as an assistant and then proceed to recruit completely over-rated white guys who like to fist pump and slap the ground while playing defense. The only problem will be is that there will not be any Grant Hills or Elton Brands to piggy back them to victories. I love this hire for Iowa- my only concern is that I believe Northwestern will be relaxing their academic standards to get him. Collins would be an idiot to leave Coach K's womb unless NU promised to let him bring in less stellar students and upgrade facilities.
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Most of the media guys that have good relationships with Coach K (John Feinstein and Dan Patrick, to name a few) all say that it's pretty common knowledge around the program that Wojo is the coach in waiting. That's why he left the "womb".
 
No way they hand the reins of Duke basketball over to Wojo the floor slapping clown monkey. Duke will get the Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens of the day when that time comes. UNC didnt hand it over to an unproven assistant. Kansas didnt either. When is the last time a big time (i mean big time) program handed it to an unproven asst? I can't think of one. And if they did, how did that go?
 
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