In the words of Eminem: “just lose it. AH AH AH AH AH.”
“Go crazy AH AH AH AH AH.”
“alright now lose it, AH AH AH AH AH.”
That’s exactly what Northwestern Wildcats Coach Chris Collins did after the referees blew a call that possibly could have swung the momentum of tonight’s 69-67 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Watch the Vine below as the Buckeyes Shannon Scott commits an obvious goal-tend (that wasn’t called) on NU Guard Tre Demps.
Chris Collins, rightfully so, loses his mind:
The former McDonald’s All-American got away with one here, and the no call occurred during a critical point in the game that saw Northwestern coming back. The play, the game itself (and pretty much all of conference play for that matter) is just another example of just how snake-bitten NU basketball really is. The Vine above does not do justice to how truly ANGRY Chris Collins was at that moment tonight.
He approached Bobby Knight or Petey Bell (Nick Nolte’s character in Blue Chips) levels of “getting animated.”
He angrily strayed all the way out to the middle of the court. Justifiably so.
. 
“I saw everything you guys saw, someone needs to be held accountable,” said Collins in the postgame press conference regarding the controversial play.
“I don’t know who answers for this stuff. Someone’s got to be held accountable.”
He will not submit the play for review to the league or the NCAA. He’ll move on with his life.
this is the most animated and angry i’ve ever seen Chris Collins. He’s approaching Bobby Knightesque levels
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) January 23, 2015
Collins is known for being very calm, cool and collected most all of the time. So when he got livid, and again justifiably so, it was quite out of character. I asked him if this is as animated as he can recall getting lately during a game.
“I’m fighting for my guys man. I’m a fighter, we’re fighting, my team’s a fighter. Just a fighter, man. What I try to do is give my team what they need. My team needed my fight, and they needed my energy. They needed it, we were getting a little tired and we were trying to come back.”
“There are times when you need to stay cool and give them that poise, that coolness. And then there’s other times when you got to give them that fight.”
That was a very real and human moment by Collins. Especially so given the culture of the press conference; which is almost always corporate spin.
There’s obviously much more at work here regarding the frustration of Chris Collins than just this specific play. Here are Northwestern’s last four results:
overtime loss at Michigan State, five point loss to Illinois, two point loss at Michigan, two point loss to Ohio State.
“It’s so tough that they’re not getting the results they deserve,” said Collins of his team/players.
“It’s a fighting team. I love my group. We’re getting better every game. There’s no quit.”
Obviously though, there are no “moral victories” and the “close but no cigar” path of the season would frustrate anybody and everybody.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)