Collins’ squad is still figuring it out
· Yahoo Sports
“We’ve gotta get better.”
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Northwestern men’s basketball’s head coach Chris Collins repeated that sentiment — or a similar phrase using “better” as a verb — 11 times during his postgame press conference following the team’s 94-59 loss to No. 18 Iowa State.
It wasn’t something that necessarily needed to be said. The ’Cats fell short of the mark in almost every way against the Cyclones, getting outshot 53% to 33% from the field and 50% to 23% from three, outrebounded 44 to 31 and defeated on second-chance points 18 to 11.
Rather, there was nothing else that could be said.
“We got to get better, man,” said Collins. “Like in my brain I’m answering these questions, but in reality I’m thinking about all the things: we gotta get into practice, and we gotta do a better job as coaches. Our habits aren’t where they need to be.”
After two exhibition losses — a close 70-64 exhibition loss to Illinois State and then Sunday’s 35-point loss to Iowa State — it’s simply clear that this Northwestern team isn’t yet where it needs to be to be competitive against Power Five opponents.
In some ways, it’s tough to shake the feeling that the ‘Cats’ inability to compete against upper-echelon Power Five teams like Iowa State is now out of their control.
The offseason is over. NU’s roster is set in stone, and even if you add USCB transfer Colin Smith (DNP) and four-star recruit Jayden Hodge (out for the first part of the season with a knee injury) to the mix, in a pound-for-pound comparison with the Cyclones, there’s a pretty clear talent and athletic gap between the teams. ISU showed it could shoot and pass better than the ‘Cats, while being stronger, faster and more physical.
“Their physicality and fight in the first half just kind of took us out of everything we were trying to do, and we had a hard time running offense,” said Collins about his squad getting outscored 45-18 in the first frame.
But, in other ways, Northwestern does still have the time and room to grow.
Iowa State was not only more skilled than the ‘Cats, but they played better together, and that can be attributed to the continuity and Power Five experience that exists on T.J. Otzelberger’s roster. ISU’s 2026-27 team features seven returning players and two Power Five transfers. This is a team that knows how it has to play to get wins against college basketball’s best opponents.
Meanwhile, there’s no hiding the fact that it was a tumultuous offseason in Evanston. A day came in April when the ‘Cats suddenly had just three returning players. Collins and his staff had to kick into full gear to roster a full team, and the resulting cast, on paper, isn’t necessarily ideal. Of the ‘Cats’ 11 newcomers, nine are playing their first season bearing the badge of a Power Five basketball program, and a lot of them are far from figuring out how to play against Iowa State-caliber opponents.
“A lot of our guys are in a new setting, at a new level, and they’re seeing the speed of the game and the physicality: it rises,” said Collins.
In other words, this Northwestern team is still figuring out what will work best for it.
The season isn’t over. It just means that from the top to the bottom — coaches, to players, to managers — this program needs to keep putting its heads together to figure out what its strengths are and what schemes will breed the best result on the court.
“That’s what I was very anxious for these two games was to kind of see, ‘Okay, where are we at and what do we need to do?’” said Collins. “And so now that we’ve seen a little bit of a sample size, hopefully we can figure out an offensive and defensive system that’s going to be really good for this team.”
And Northwestern’s players shared their coaches’ sentiment. Returners Jake West and Angelo Ciaravino, who happened to lead the ‘Cats in scoring on Sunday with 21 and 13 points, respectively, both acknowledged that the ‘Cats are in a learning phase of the season, and emphasized the importance of trying to think constructively about the big defeat.
“Obviously, these are great learning lessons for us,” said West. “At the end of the day, I mean, we gotta just go back into practice and get ready for the next game.”
As West also said in his postgame presser, the ‘Cats are still 0-0. There’s no denying that they got punked on Sunday, but what matters now is how they use the adversity to breed a better regular season product.
“We got some mud splashed in our face,” said Collins. “That happens in life. I’ve been knocked to the pavement many times in my lifetime, and I told the guys, ‘It’s about how you respond.’”
Northwestern will get its first chance at responding to its exhibition woes a week from today, when it hosts Binghamton at Welsh-Ryan Arena in its season opener. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CDT.