Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Big Ten Primer
12/26/2016 4:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsportscom Special Contributor
Five nights earlier, down at then-undefeated Butler, the 'Cats had engaged in one of those defining games, a game that would show if they were indeed prepared to take a quantum leap in their fourth season under Chris Collins. They came close on this occasion, falling in the final seconds to a cold-blooded jumper. Now, out in Brooklyn, they encountered another one of those affair, this time against then-No. 22 Texas. This time they soared, routing the Longhorns by 19, and here they had themselves a signature win, a win that announces a building program is ready (pick your cliche) to turn the corner or to break down the door or to take that proverbial next step.
This was a notable victory, then, just the kind that they often celebrate by dousing Collins with water. "I want to celebrate a big win," he recently said of that tradition. "I think you put a lot into this, so let's have fun with it. I think it's healthy. It's not just being relieved to win. Be excited to win." But here, after this big win, his 'Cats were having none of that. They were already thinking 24 hours ahead and to the title game of the Legends Classic.
"They said," Collins went on, "'Hey, coach. We came here to win a championship. We're happy to beat Texas. But we've got Notre Dame tomorrow night and we came here to win two.' To me that was, 'You know what? They're starting to get there.' It was really encouraging to hear."
"We didn't really celebrate that one (Texas)," point Bryant McIntosh will soon echo. "We expected to win that one. And that was just one step in our mission."
••••••••••
Chris Collins, from the start of his stay in Evanston, has talked of building a program, which is a far different thing from building a team. The latter can be created quickly, in any number of ways. But the former takes patience, which is a rare quality both in this age of instant gratification and in the wonderful world of sports.
Back in 1965, for one example, the great Dean Smith was in his fourth season at North Carolina, and he was hung in effigy after his Tar Heels lost by 22 at Wake Forest. (The flaming dummy was pulled down by Billy Cunningham, an All-American at the school who later starred for and coached the Philadelphia 76ers). His fourth season at Duke was also not a memorable one for Mike Krzyzewski, whom a booster group called the Iron Dukes very much wanted fired back then in 1984. (Tom Butters, then the school's athletic director, responded to their cries by giving the young Krzyzewski a five-year extension).
But here Collins is in his fourth season, and his 'Cats are not only 11-2 as they set off on that gauntlet that is their Big Ten schedule with a Tuesday game at Penn State. They are also a far-different vision with a far-different mindset than they were even just a year ago. "They're at a high level of confidence right now," the DePaul coach Dave Leito noted in early December after the 'Cats topped his Blue Demons by 16. "They're only a couple plays away from being undefeated, and they play like that. I have a whole lot of respect and enthusiasm for what's going on here. I think they're doing it well and I think they're doing it right."
"It's been a progression," Collins himself said that same evening. "You go through some stretches in the first couple years, it's tough. But you always try to look at the long term. Now we're starting to get the fruits of the work of the Vic Laws and the Scott Lindseys and the Gavin Skellys and the Bryant McIntoshes. Those were the young guys in the early years. . . . It's our fourth year now. What I like, there's a culture in place. The players in the program are preaching the message instead of me all the time. I'm really proud that the things I tried to teach them when they were younger—what it takes to be successful; how tough you have to be; how you have to prepare; how you have to play every day—those are things I now hear them saying to the younger guys in the locker room. That's a good feeling when it's coming from them because they're taking ownership. You hear the great coaches talk about it all the time. The best teams are the ones that are led by the players. I'm starting to see that a little bit, which is really fun."
Law and Lindsey, Skelly and McIntosh comprised Collins' first recruiting class, and their physical growth between their freshman year and this junior year is obvious. That, just as obviously, is an important reason for the progress of the program. But, arguably, even more important are those ephemerals already noted— that ownership they have taken, which pushes players to patrol each other; and that confidence they now exude, which puts a little shimmy and swagger in both their step and their play.
"When it comes from your peers, it's better, no matter what," Collins will say, explaining the benefit of player ownership. "If you're being talked to by a teacher, a coach, someone that's older, there's a tendency to take it in a different way versus the way you take it from your peers. It's the old thing. Peer pressure. The best form of leadership, and the best form of holding each other accountable, is when peers can do it to each other."
"When you hear the same voice, you just get tired of it," McIntosh soon echoed. "You kind of stop listening. You tune out. A coach has so many jobs and if he's having to be the guy who has to hold everybody accountable 100 percent of the time, you stop listening to him. This way you can allow your coach to just coach the Xs and Os and execution, and let the players hold each other responsible."
Those players, these 'Cats, are not bashful about doing just that, nor are they afraid to announce that they together are now all grown up and a whole different breed of cat. "We haven't gone into a game where I felt we were going to lose," McIntosh said here. "I felt confident every time, and I can't say that about every other game in years past. I felt like before, 'Well, if we come out and play a great game and one of their guys has an off-night, then we can win.' Now I feel like, 'Put their best guys out there, we'll put our best out, and we'll see who's the best team. I'm not afraid of that. It's a lot different. We're confident and we're going to tell you we're confident. We're a good team and can play with anybody."
"This group," Gavin Skelly later said, "we've been kicked down. We've been disrespected. We've gone through a lot of adversity. Now we're a mature and older group, so we can handle a lot. A huge thing is, we used to play not to lose. Now we're playing to win. That's a different mindset. We come in with a cockiness and an edge on our shoulder that we're better than the other team, that we can beat them. Bryant's exactly right. It used to be, 'We hope we win. We hope he misses shots. i hope i make this shot.' Now we're like, 'We're going to make this shot. We're going to win this game. We're going to shut out their best players.'"
"I'm very happy," Collins finally said when asked how he felt about his players putting themselves out there like that. "I come to work everyday knowing that I have a team that literally tries to do everything that me and my staff ask them to do. They're all 100 percent invested in what we're doing. They've followed what we've tried to do these last couple years. Some games you're not going to play as well, and others you are. But from a mindset, where we are culturally in the program, expecting to win, and the expectation of what it is to be a Northwestern basketball player that they carry out is in a great place. And it's all because of these guys. So I couldn't be prouder of where they're at."
••••••••••
A last-minute error cost the 'Cats their game with Notre Dame and that championship they sought. But there is still no discounting the importance of that attitude they manifested after their victory over Texas. "That speaks to our confidence, and it's also us taking on the identity of our coach," McIntosh said, once more thinking back to the night. "A good team always takes on the personality of its coach. Our coach is extremely confident and I think this is a testament to him. His team has finally taken on the personality he has. It's a confident team that goes to work everyday."
"I think they're getting there. I think they're getting there," Collins would finally say when asked about that, and then he chuckled softly. "I love these guys, man. I do. I love coaching this team. I coach 'em hard because I love 'em. I just think that really good players, and guys who want to do special things, they want to be coached hard. They know the way I feel about them. They know I'm in the fight with them. I think we're becoming a blue collar team. You don't do some of the things were doing defensively, and fighting, without having a chip on our shoulder, without having a little bit of an edge to us. We're doing a good job. We're not there yet. i'm not anointing us to be a finished product. But this has been a really fun team to coach.
"The best teams are when the coaches and players are aligned as one. We are that right now. I hope we can continue to do that. That's how we're going to be at our best. I'm excited to see where we can go the rest of the way."
NUsportscom Special Contributor
Five nights earlier, down at then-undefeated Butler, the 'Cats had engaged in one of those defining games, a game that would show if they were indeed prepared to take a quantum leap in their fourth season under Chris Collins. They came close on this occasion, falling in the final seconds to a cold-blooded jumper. Now, out in Brooklyn, they encountered another one of those affair, this time against then-No. 22 Texas. This time they soared, routing the Longhorns by 19, and here they had themselves a signature win, a win that announces a building program is ready (pick your cliche) to turn the corner or to break down the door or to take that proverbial next step.
This was a notable victory, then, just the kind that they often celebrate by dousing Collins with water. "I want to celebrate a big win," he recently said of that tradition. "I think you put a lot into this, so let's have fun with it. I think it's healthy. It's not just being relieved to win. Be excited to win." But here, after this big win, his 'Cats were having none of that. They were already thinking 24 hours ahead and to the title game of the Legends Classic.
"They said," Collins went on, "'Hey, coach. We came here to win a championship. We're happy to beat Texas. But we've got Notre Dame tomorrow night and we came here to win two.' To me that was, 'You know what? They're starting to get there.' It was really encouraging to hear."
"We didn't really celebrate that one (Texas)," point Bryant McIntosh will soon echo. "We expected to win that one. And that was just one step in our mission."
••••••••••
Chris Collins, from the start of his stay in Evanston, has talked of building a program, which is a far different thing from building a team. The latter can be created quickly, in any number of ways. But the former takes patience, which is a rare quality both in this age of instant gratification and in the wonderful world of sports.
Back in 1965, for one example, the great Dean Smith was in his fourth season at North Carolina, and he was hung in effigy after his Tar Heels lost by 22 at Wake Forest. (The flaming dummy was pulled down by Billy Cunningham, an All-American at the school who later starred for and coached the Philadelphia 76ers). His fourth season at Duke was also not a memorable one for Mike Krzyzewski, whom a booster group called the Iron Dukes very much wanted fired back then in 1984. (Tom Butters, then the school's athletic director, responded to their cries by giving the young Krzyzewski a five-year extension).
But here Collins is in his fourth season, and his 'Cats are not only 11-2 as they set off on that gauntlet that is their Big Ten schedule with a Tuesday game at Penn State. They are also a far-different vision with a far-different mindset than they were even just a year ago. "They're at a high level of confidence right now," the DePaul coach Dave Leito noted in early December after the 'Cats topped his Blue Demons by 16. "They're only a couple plays away from being undefeated, and they play like that. I have a whole lot of respect and enthusiasm for what's going on here. I think they're doing it well and I think they're doing it right."
"It's been a progression," Collins himself said that same evening. "You go through some stretches in the first couple years, it's tough. But you always try to look at the long term. Now we're starting to get the fruits of the work of the Vic Laws and the Scott Lindseys and the Gavin Skellys and the Bryant McIntoshes. Those were the young guys in the early years. . . . It's our fourth year now. What I like, there's a culture in place. The players in the program are preaching the message instead of me all the time. I'm really proud that the things I tried to teach them when they were younger—what it takes to be successful; how tough you have to be; how you have to prepare; how you have to play every day—those are things I now hear them saying to the younger guys in the locker room. That's a good feeling when it's coming from them because they're taking ownership. You hear the great coaches talk about it all the time. The best teams are the ones that are led by the players. I'm starting to see that a little bit, which is really fun."
Law and Lindsey, Skelly and McIntosh comprised Collins' first recruiting class, and their physical growth between their freshman year and this junior year is obvious. That, just as obviously, is an important reason for the progress of the program. But, arguably, even more important are those ephemerals already noted— that ownership they have taken, which pushes players to patrol each other; and that confidence they now exude, which puts a little shimmy and swagger in both their step and their play.
"When it comes from your peers, it's better, no matter what," Collins will say, explaining the benefit of player ownership. "If you're being talked to by a teacher, a coach, someone that's older, there's a tendency to take it in a different way versus the way you take it from your peers. It's the old thing. Peer pressure. The best form of leadership, and the best form of holding each other accountable, is when peers can do it to each other."
"When you hear the same voice, you just get tired of it," McIntosh soon echoed. "You kind of stop listening. You tune out. A coach has so many jobs and if he's having to be the guy who has to hold everybody accountable 100 percent of the time, you stop listening to him. This way you can allow your coach to just coach the Xs and Os and execution, and let the players hold each other responsible."
Those players, these 'Cats, are not bashful about doing just that, nor are they afraid to announce that they together are now all grown up and a whole different breed of cat. "We haven't gone into a game where I felt we were going to lose," McIntosh said here. "I felt confident every time, and I can't say that about every other game in years past. I felt like before, 'Well, if we come out and play a great game and one of their guys has an off-night, then we can win.' Now I feel like, 'Put their best guys out there, we'll put our best out, and we'll see who's the best team. I'm not afraid of that. It's a lot different. We're confident and we're going to tell you we're confident. We're a good team and can play with anybody."
"This group," Gavin Skelly later said, "we've been kicked down. We've been disrespected. We've gone through a lot of adversity. Now we're a mature and older group, so we can handle a lot. A huge thing is, we used to play not to lose. Now we're playing to win. That's a different mindset. We come in with a cockiness and an edge on our shoulder that we're better than the other team, that we can beat them. Bryant's exactly right. It used to be, 'We hope we win. We hope he misses shots. i hope i make this shot.' Now we're like, 'We're going to make this shot. We're going to win this game. We're going to shut out their best players.'"
"I'm very happy," Collins finally said when asked how he felt about his players putting themselves out there like that. "I come to work everyday knowing that I have a team that literally tries to do everything that me and my staff ask them to do. They're all 100 percent invested in what we're doing. They've followed what we've tried to do these last couple years. Some games you're not going to play as well, and others you are. But from a mindset, where we are culturally in the program, expecting to win, and the expectation of what it is to be a Northwestern basketball player that they carry out is in a great place. And it's all because of these guys. So I couldn't be prouder of where they're at."
••••••••••
A last-minute error cost the 'Cats their game with Notre Dame and that championship they sought. But there is still no discounting the importance of that attitude they manifested after their victory over Texas. "That speaks to our confidence, and it's also us taking on the identity of our coach," McIntosh said, once more thinking back to the night. "A good team always takes on the personality of its coach. Our coach is extremely confident and I think this is a testament to him. His team has finally taken on the personality he has. It's a confident team that goes to work everyday."
"I think they're getting there. I think they're getting there," Collins would finally say when asked about that, and then he chuckled softly. "I love these guys, man. I do. I love coaching this team. I coach 'em hard because I love 'em. I just think that really good players, and guys who want to do special things, they want to be coached hard. They know the way I feel about them. They know I'm in the fight with them. I think we're becoming a blue collar team. You don't do some of the things were doing defensively, and fighting, without having a chip on our shoulder, without having a little bit of an edge to us. We're doing a good job. We're not there yet. i'm not anointing us to be a finished product. But this has been a really fun team to coach.
"The best teams are when the coaches and players are aligned as one. We are that right now. I hope we can continue to do that. That's how we're going to be at our best. I'm excited to see where we can go the rest of the way."
••••••
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