Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
Northwestern was one of the 15 teams that headed to Indianapolis this week for the Big Ten tournament. They kept their slim March Madness dreams alive with a win over Minnesota, and head coach Chris Collins made it very clear he has beef with the conference he seems to think has a vendetta against the Wildcats while complaining about the hotel they were put in.
This season marks the eleventh year Chris Collins has been the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Northwestern. He’d only led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament two times in the past decade while posting a 153-161 record during that span, but he was hoping to build on the success of the campaign that led to them going 22-12 and exiting in the second round of March Madness last year.
Unfortunately, that did not end up being the case.
The Wildcats got off to a solid start but saw things take a turn for the worse once conference play kicked off. By the time the regular season wrapped up, they were sitting at 16-15 and ended up being one of the six teams that went 7-13 against their fellow Big Ten opponents.
It was still enough to earn an invite to the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis as the 13-seed, and on Wednesday, Northwestern got the first of the five consecutive wins it would need to rattle off in order to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 72-64 win over a Minnesota team that fired Ben Johnson shortly after the loss.
According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Collins used his postgame press conference to take the Big Ten to task for the hotel Northwestern was assigned, facetiously saying the rooms inside a building that currently has no working air conditioning “were 1,000 degrees” thanks to an unseasonably warm week in Indy before saying they were actually around a slightly more realistic (and infinitely more survivable) 85ºF.
As the outlet notes, the conference hands out accommodations based on a team’s seed in the tournament. The Sheraton where the Wildcats were ultimately put up was second on their list of preferred hotels, but Collins hinted he was unaware the A.C. had been out of commission for more than a week while asserting the Big Ten should have been aware and adjusted accordingly (Northwestern is also the only team staying there).
He used that grievance as a springboard for the poor treatment he seems to think the Big Ten has routinely subjected his squad to, adding:
“We’re used to being treated like that by this league…They’ll put us in one that’s hotter if we leave it up to the league.”
Collins and Northwestern will have the chance to keep its season alive when they face off against Wisconsin in the second round of the tourney on Thursday afternoon.