Chris Collins will be coaching the USA Select Team which is a group of upcoming NBA stars who are practicing against the National Team in preparation for 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain Aug. 30-Sept. 14.
The Select Team roster includes for Big Ten standouts Trey Burke (Utah Jazz/Michigan), Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors/Michigan State), Tim Hardaway Jr. (New York Knicks/Michigan), Victor Oladipo (Orlando Magic/Indiana) and Cody Zeller (Charlotte Hornets/Indiana).
This week’s camp gets underway Monday and runs through Thursday. The announcement came today. Collins has previously worked with the coaching staff for the 2008 and 2012 USA Basketball National Teams that captured Olympic gold at Beijing and London, respectively.
During the season, Collins lost more games than he won. But he did find a way to win a few with a style that was not his own. A tempo and method that is opposite of what he does.
“Look, it’s not pretty we know that, but as long as we can find a way to get the job done I don’t really care how it happens,” Collins told the media who just watched his Northwestern Wildcats defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 63-60 in double overtime, this past season.
It was a college basketball game where neither Big Ten team reached 47 points in regulation. And it was part of a stretch in which he led Northwestern to three wins in four games, with scores that read:
W 49-43 over #23 Illinois, L #4 Michigan State 54-40, W Indiana 54-47.
When Chris Collins said it’s not pretty, he wasn’t lying. It makes the basketball of Dick Bennett and Mike Fratello look like Magic Johnson “Showtime” at the Great Western Forum.
However, it is winning conference games, and it involves great defense. Northwestern is playing insanely great defense right now. It’s not sexy, but it’s got the Wildcats close to .500 in conference play, and playing spoiler.
It’s also not the style Chris Collins will ultimately implement at NU. And obviously, he won’t use it with the USA Select team either.
Chris Collins will run an up tempo motion based offense once he gets more of his own players in the program. I’m not saying they’re going to make another Paul Westhead “Guru of Go” ESPN 30 for 30 about basketball in Evanston next year or anything, but it’s going to get much better to watch, and soon.
Right now, Collins has to run an offense with the players of Bill Carmody, who were recruited to NU to play the Princeton offense. Switching from the Princeton to the system of Chris Collins is a very big transition. In the words of Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo “it’s like going from the Wishbone to the Pro Set in football.” So again, this extremely painful to watch brand of ball is not here to stay forever.
It’s not indicative of the NUera.
“I think coaching is being successful with the hand your dealt,” Collins said.
“My personality is to run and shoot and score, get up and down, but that’s not a formula that’s going to be good for this group. And my job as a coach is to put these guys in a situation that’s going to be successful. To me that’s the essence of what coaching is. But I’m trying to put these guys in a position to win in this league and we’ve kind of found a formula that works for us,” he said after the Purdue game.
Indeed they have, people from Chicagoland will remember the 1983 Chicago White Sox winning the AL West division by a then record 22 games. Their mantra was “Winning Ugly.”
Off the court, Chris Collins is living up to what NU leadership was reportedly looking for in a replacement for Bill Carmody, a supposed “Basketball Fitz.” He’s a very young, up and comer with excellent PR skills, endless energy, great recruiting ability and a tendency to emphasize defense. And again about that tremendous defense being played in Evanston.
MSU came in averaging 82.2 points per game. Illinois came in averaging 72, and scored just 43. Under Chris Collins, Northwestern will “get after it” on the defensive end, every night. Like Tom Izzo said, the offense and the wins will come. In time, they will come.
They held MSU, the league’s number one team in assists and three-point shooting percentage to 54 points and 12% 3 point percentage, well well below their averages. By the count of Tom Izzo, the Spartans put up six airballs. Purdue went 23 minutes that night with one field goal. ONE FIELD Goal, that’s more than a half of a college basketball game.