Collins keeping Northwestern's eye on the ball for Ohio State

EVANSTON-Chris Collins wants to keep his team's eye on the ball.

"Oh jeez, come on Steve," Collins said with a laugh when the Chicago Sun-Times' Steve Greenberg asked him about this team's potential to return to the NCAA Tournament after hitting the same opening mark, 14-5 (5-3 Big Ten), that they did on their way to March Madness last season.

"We're so in the moment," he continued. "It's crazy when you play in the Big Ten. I'm not making this up, I only know what's in front of me. [Brad] Underwood asked me when we were making small talk before the game, he asked, 'Who do you guys play next?' I really didn't know, you're so locked in...

"Do we want to be a team that's playing in March? Absolutely. Have we put ourselves in a good position through 19 games? Absolutely. That was the goal, but there's still 12 league games left and we'll take them one at a time."

It's hard to put the one that just happened behind them though, one that ended with an overtime win over No. 10 Illinois and a shirtless Collins celebrating with his squad while they showered him with water.

"I kind of gave the look to the strength coach like, 'Have we put in the work where I can go do this?'" Collins said. "He kind of gave me the nod, like, 'You're looking good, coach. So let's do it.'

"Spur of the moment, not sure that'll be a regular thing, but I was just proud of the guys and more than anything I didn't want to ruin another polo."

Boo Buie, who dropped a game-high 29 points to earn that celebration, concurred with Collins' assessment.

"He's definitely got the approval" to go shirtless, Buie said. "Coach has been working out. Shout out to coach, he's definitely looking better."

Nicholson unfazed by brief stint off the bench: Seven-foot senior Matt Nicholson struggled early in the season but was phenomenal down the stretch against Illinois, tallying 12 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in his return to the starting lineup after sophomore Luke Hunger had started in his place the past five games.

"Our team is very versatile," Nicholson said. "Anybody can play in our group of guys, and it's just about having trust in our coaches."

Nicholson had a stretch of seven games where he scored no more than five points and didn't score at all once. But he's totaled 31 points and 20 rebounds in the Wildcats' last three contests.

Did Nicholson feel like he had to prove something after returning to the starting five?

"Not necessarily," he said. "I just kind of did what I needed to do, Coach saw I was doing that and said I could have this one."

Collins noted flipped script, but same record: While the Wildcats are back at the same 14-5 (5-3 Big Ten) record this season, they've gone about it very differently than they did last year.

"I like where this team is offensively, I liked where that team was defensively," Collins said. "We've shown we've been more efficient offensively. We haven't had quite the same defense, but it's getting better."

Northwestern is scoring 73.9 points per game, while allowing 68.7. Last season, they scored and allowed six fewer points per contest, at 67.7 and 62.8, respectively.

"We were so dominant and elite defensively last year but struggled to score. We haven't reached that level on the other end but I think we've been a little bit more functional."

Inbound success the result of hard work and execution: Northwestern's inbounds plays have particularly excelled this season, notably getting Nicholson a wide-open dunk late in overtime against Illinois to give Northwestern a 90-80 lead with 1:13 to play.

"That's something we take pride in," Collins said. "We try to chart those. I call it kind of the special teams of basketball, like you have special teams in football.

"Are you guarding other teams plays well in those situations, and are you then stealing some baskets? We've been able to have pretty good success...out of timeouts, a lot of times those are things the other team hasn't seen because the scouting is so high-level in this league."

Collins added that the Wildcats read a team's habits and style, and then call plays based on the situation.

"Offensively, you try to put together a game plan based on what they do defensively, so how do they guard pick and roll?" said Collins. "How do they guard the post, off-ball screens, and you come up with things that might work.

"You keep some notes jotted down for if we need a bucket here, what are some things we can go to? But also, it's about what the game entails. Do we need a two, do we need a three? Who's hot, do we want to get Ty [Berry] a shot, is it Boo, do we need to get Brooks [Barnhizer] something? I think it's a little bit of a combination of all that."

Wildcats won't overlook Ohio State: Northwestern is undefeated in conference play at home this season and the Buckeyes winless on the road. But Collins made sure to note the team's talent and the razor-thin margins of conference play in the Big Ten.

"In this league, the moment you let your foot off the gas pedal a little bit, you pay for it dearly," he said. "We have a very hungry team coming in here in Ohio State that has very good players and they're very well coached. Our guys better be ready."

One of the Buckeyes will be a familiar face: Jamison Battle. Battle starred for Minnesota the past two seasons before transferring to Columbus for his final year of eligibility. He averages 14.2 points per game, second only to sophomore guard Bruce Thornton on the Buckeye roster.

"I think it helps that our guys have played against him," Collins said about Battle. "He's doing a lot of the same things, though at Minnesota he played the four, but Ohio State is going bigger so he's playing more as a wing...

"His skill set remains the same: he's 6'7" to 6'8", he's an incredible three-point shooter but he can also back down a smaller guy in the post. We have to do a really good job becasue when he throws up a big number they become much more dangerous."