IU basketball coaching candidate profile: Chris Collins

This is the eighth in a series of profiles of potential candidates for Indiana’s open basketball head coaching position.

Candidate: Chris Collins

Age: 50

Current position, tenure: Northwestern head coach since 2013

Previous Jobs: Duke assistant coach 2000-13; Seton Hall assistant coach 1998-2000; Detroit Shock (former WNBA franchise) assistant coach 1998

Accomplishments: Collins has led Northwestern to its only three NCAA Tournament berths in program history, including back-to-back appearances in 2023 and 2024. His Wildcats also won a game in each of those three tournaments. He owns the best winning percentage of any Northwestern coach since Arthur Lonborg from 1927-50. Collins also won Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2023. At Duke, he helped coach the Blue Devils to national championships in 2001 and 2010.

Why it might work: It’s impossible to overstate how much Collins has pulled off in Evanston. He stepped into one of the most difficult jobs in college basketball, at a university that had never tasted March Madness in its long history, and built it into a respectable Big Ten program. Collins has done a really impressive job at Northwestern. He would’ve made it three straight NCAA Tournaments this year if not for multiple key injuries. He may have only one Big Ten Coach of the Year award, but he’s become one of the best coaches in the conference in getting the most out of his players. With limited resources and less pure talent than some bigger programs in the Big Ten, Collins has turned Northwestern into a contender in several years.

All of that’s to say, if he can do that at a program like Northwestern, just imagine what he could do at IU with stronger resources and tradition to work with. If Collins brought the culture he’s built in Evanston down to Bloomington and got the Hoosiers to play as hard as his Wildcats do, it’s not hard to see him having a lot of success at Indiana.

Sure, he’d shoulder a lot higher expectations at IU than he has at NU. But Collins spent 13 years on the sideline with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, and earned a promotion to associate head coach ahead of his ninth season in Durham. He helped the Blue Devils sign Jon Scheyer out of Illinois. There should be little doubt about Collins’ ability to recruit at a high level when given strong resources to work with, and there should be no doubts as to whether he can handle the constant spotlight and attention a program like Indiana gets.

Why it might not work or happen: First off, Collins was asked at the Big Ten Tournament about his name garnering interest for the IU job, and his response didn’t exactly send eyeball emojis to Bloomington.

“No, I’m coaching my team. I’m not — people, my family and all that might be on social media, but I’m not one of these guys that’s looking at any of that stuff,” Collins said after Northwestern’s win over Minnesota. “I’m locked in. You guys know, if you don’t see me over there coaching, I’m locked in on my team, and that’s where it is right now. I’m getting ready to play one of the best teams in the country tomorrow (Wisconsin). So I’d better put my full focus on that.”

Collins could also be a candidate for other openings such as Villanova.

Additionally, while it’s hard to deny what Collins has done at Northwestern, a lot of that success is relative to the Wildcats’ grim history. Indiana could be looking for someone with more success — whether in the NCAA Tournament or overall — compared to its own standards.

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