BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For most of its history, Northwestern men’s basketball has been an afterthought … or worse.
In 116 seasons in the Big Ten, Northwestern has just 31 finishes of .500 or better. Of those, 27 of them came before 1967. By comparison, Northwestern has had 15 seasons in the same period where it won two Big Ten games or less.
Northwestern struggled against much-larger Big Ten peers who don’t set the same academic standards for their athletes as Northwestern. Once the losing mounted over the decades, a winning tradition couldn’t be sold, either.
Northwestern was long famous for being the only power conference school not to make the NCAA Tournament, and it was thought to be something of a coaching graveyard.
One man changed that: Chris Collins.
When Collins arrived at Northwestern after being an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke in 2013 – Northwestern had improved under previous coach Bill Carmody, but hadn’t broken through as a Big Ten winner. Collins changed that.
His 2017 team went 10-8 in the Big Ten and finally broke the NCAA Tournament drought. His teams went 12-8 in the Big Ten in 2023 and 2024.
Collins has done what was thought to be impossible. He’s made Northwestern relevant in basketball. What could he do with resources and commitment Indiana has?
What Makes Collins An Attractive Choice
Much of the attraction was spelled out above – Collins has had five winning seasons in Evanston. He has matched Carmody in that department, but under Collins, the Wildcats have been better in the Big Ten than Carmody’s teams were.
It isn’t just that Collins wins; it’s how he wins. His teams are extremely well-built. In recent seasons, he’s had players like Boo Buie, Chase Audige, Ty Berry, Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli with specific roles where they excelled.
Northwestern’s teams are rarely caught unprepared, and they’re hard to break down because role players are committed to being just that. An example is center Matthew Nicholson, who has never been called upon to be a scorer, but who sets screens and does dirty work so others can be productive. Collins is very good at getting players to buy in and in the transfer portal era. Most of his important players have not hit the escape hatch to find greener pastures.
Collins’ teams are rarely up-tempo, very regularly near the bottom of Division I in tempo, but they are efficient. Northwestern hasn’t been out of Kenpom’s top 100 in offensive efficiency in the last three seasons. It has only been out of the top 100 in defensive efficiency twice in Collins’ tenure.
What Are Drawbacks With Collins
Northwestern recruits from a completely different starting point than Indiana does. With rare exception, Northwestern is not going to be rubbing shoulders with the blueblood programs vying for five-star talent.
Certainly, Collins did so when he was an assistant at Duke, but that was over a decade ago. How Collins would do in today’s high-end recruiting environment would be justly scrutinized.
While Collins has been successful at Northwestern, it’s a comparative level of success. When stacked against coaches who have coached their teams to the Final Four, how can Collins be compared? It’s hard to know how good he is as a coach when he’s being graded on an institutional curve. Then again, Bob Knight turned out to be a wildly successful choice after coaching at Army, another program that can’t just recruit anyone.
It probably shouldn’t be forgotten that Collins is enjoying a renaissance period at Northwestern. He had five straight losing seasons from 2017-22 before getting back to winning ways. Whether the losing was related to Collins or the institutional brakes is once again hard to quantify.
Is It Realistic To Expect Collins To Take The Indiana Job?
Northwestern is a private university, so specific contract numbers aren’t available. But Collins signed an extension in 2023 that keeps him at Northwestern until 2028.
Collins has been at Northwestern for so long he might seem older than he really is. Collins turns 51 in April, so there is plenty of time for him to coach and be successful.
Does Collins have the itch to coach at a school like Indiana? Only he knows.
It might be hard to leave the Wildcats. In more of a modest way, he’s not unlike Scott Drew at Baylor in the sense that he’s built his own empire at Northwestern. He would certainly have more job security in Evanston than Bloomington.
Then again, would Collins think Northwestern is maxed out in what it can accomplish in the Big Ten? If he did think that, perhaps Indiana would be a worthy challenge for him?
What Indiana would get in return is a smart coach who runs a clean program and has proven he can find a way to win regardless of the restrictions placed on him.
