Duke basketball alum takes down No. 1
Northwestern's Chris Collins seemed to be on the hot seat at the beginning of this season. No longer. Not at all. On Sunday afternoon, the 48-year-old Collins, who is a former four-year Duke basketball guard and long-time assistant to Mike Krzyzewski, guided the unranked (for now) Wildcats to a 64-58 home victory over No. 1 Purdue.
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The Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd stormed the floor after Northwestern closed the game on a 17-3 run. And both Collins and his teary-eyed son Ryan, a team manager, soaked it all up in their chat with the Big Ten Network's Andy Katz on the court:
Not only had Northwestern lost 11 straight in the series against Purdue, but the Wildcats had also never defeated a No. 1 team. The program was 0-18 all-time against top-ranked squads.
Now, the Wildcats (18-7, 9-5 Big Ten) have won three straight games and six of their past eight outings and are tied with Indiana at No. 2 in the conference standings. They look well on their way to punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in history.
Their last trip to the Big Dance came in 2017, Collins' fourth year on the job, and they reached the Round of 32. But Northwestern finished with a losing record in each of the next five seasons.
Consider that Collins and his players are enjoying this success despite the school losing two of its top four scorers from last year's team as transfers to the UNC basketball program (Pete Nance) and its Duke basketball counterpart (Ryan Young).
As a result, Chris Collins has all but locked up what would be his first Big Ten Coach of the Year crown.
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