scottdude8
03-30-2017, 10:14 AM
Apparently the world is such that we can't have feel good stories anymore, even for a few months: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/did-northwestern-basketball-run-off-johnnie-vassar
It's a long article, mostly because it is pretty well researched (I know some people can't stand Vice for political reasons I won't broach here, but I'm typically a fan of how in-depth their reporting tends to be). Some key points and quotes:
-In Collins' first years at the school, allegations are he singled out a backup point guard (Johnnie Vasssar) and essentially tried to bully him into transferring to free up a scholarship.
On February 3, 2015, the Northwestern men's basketball team somberly walked to the visiting locker room of the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, after a 16-point loss to the Cornhuskers.
The team, now 1-8 in the Big Ten, sat down to meet, as it always does after games. Coach Chris Collins, then in his second season at Northwestern, turned to freshman point guard Johnnie Vassar.
According to Vassar and another person who was present, Collins yelled, "Johnnie, you I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.ing suck."
By any reasonable standard, Vassar had little to do with Northwestern's struggles. A seldom-used reserve, he had played one garbage-time minute against the Huskers. Yet, according to Vassar and another person who was present, Collins continued to berate the backup guard.
Another teammate later texted Vassar that he couldn't believe what he had witnessed, calling their coach's behavior "one of the most bs things I've seen" in his years playing college basketball. The teammate added, "It is all bullI'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this., and Collins is a huge I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this., I mean so many stupid things, but you are in the right, and have done things the right way/have maintained your attitude."
-Apparently Collins' staff directly tried to encourage Vassar to transfer:
Two days after the game, Northwestern director of player development Ryan Humphrey, now an assistant coach at Notre Dame, texted Vassar to meet in the coaches' office before practice. There, according to Vassar, he sat down with Humphrey and assistant coach Armon Gates, and the two men broached a subject he hadn't expected to come up: transferring to another school.
"They said, 'Coach wanted me to speak to you about what was going on lately,'" Vassar told VICE Sports. "They said, 'I know you've been frustrated, are you thinking about transferring?'"
According to Vassar, he told Humphrey and Gates that while it was frustrating that he was not able to play as much as he had hoped, he was not interested in transferring. Vassar said his coaches asked again, and that he again said no.
-When Vassar refused to transfer, the program appears to have taken some shady routes to get him off of athletic scholarship, including forcing him into an internship not required by his scholarship and then using some contested facts about his performance at said internship to try to get him off the team, and then alleging his performance at said internship was so subpar as to lose his scholarship all together (which Vassar strongly contests).
Even though Vassar did not choose to transfer, the university could still take him off the basketball team as long as it allowed him to keep his promised four-year athletic scholarship.
According to Vassar, Polisky called and told him that in order to keep his scholarship, he and his mother would be required to sign a Non-Participant Agreement that would allow Vassar to keep his athletic scholarship as long as he worked eight hours per week in the school's Wildcat Internship Program and remained compliant with NCAA rules, such as those regarding amateurism and drug testing. Cherise and Vassar said that they then met with Northwestern vice president for athletics and recreation Jim Phillips, Collins, Polisky, associate athletic director for compliance Aaron Hosman, and a member of the school's financial aid office on July 1, 2015, to sign the form.
Cherise said that she and and her son signed the agreement because they believed that he would lose his athletic scholarship if they didn't. One of the NCAA Division I school compliance officials who spoke to VICE Sports said that isn't the case. "You can't push them off to another obligation," the official said. "There's nowhere in the NCAA manual that says anything about that. If they say, 'you need to do 40 community service hours,' no, you don't. It doesn't say anything about that." Another NCAA Division I school compliance official confirmed that analysis to VICE Sports.
-Other players have made similar allegations about Collins trying to use the "run-off" to get them to transfer.
There's a lot more in the article about the problems with transferring and "run-offs" in the NCAA as a whole, making clear this isn't a Collins/Northwestern specific problem. There's also a lot more details about the actual lawsuit that Vassar and his mother are filing that, to be honest, seem pretty damning.
Personally, I'm not sure how to feel about this... I'm not sure if this is just something horrible that happens in college basketball because of NCAA rules and Collins is just doing something that everyone else does (which, of course, is still morally questionable at the absolute best) or whether Collins really went above and beyond to make Vassar's life miserable. Additionally, all these things are still just allegations, but like I said Vice tends to do pretty in-depth reporting and the evidence cited seems fairly damning.
Regardless, if any of this is true it's extremely, extremely sad on all fronts. This seems to be another sobering example of how there are no more real feel good stories in today's world, apparently.
Hopefully I did a decent job summarizing above, but again I'd strongly suggest reading the whole article. It goes very much into the nitty-gritty of the situation and puts it into context amongst the issue of transferring as a whole very well.
Curious to see what people in the know, particularly those who may have personal experience with Collins, think about this. Hopefully, hopefully, HOPEFULLY this is something that has gotten blown out of proportion and I can still root for Chris and NU next year (except when they're playing Michigan, haha).
It's a long article, mostly because it is pretty well researched (I know some people can't stand Vice for political reasons I won't broach here, but I'm typically a fan of how in-depth their reporting tends to be). Some key points and quotes:
-In Collins' first years at the school, allegations are he singled out a backup point guard (Johnnie Vasssar) and essentially tried to bully him into transferring to free up a scholarship.
On February 3, 2015, the Northwestern men's basketball team somberly walked to the visiting locker room of the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, after a 16-point loss to the Cornhuskers.
The team, now 1-8 in the Big Ten, sat down to meet, as it always does after games. Coach Chris Collins, then in his second season at Northwestern, turned to freshman point guard Johnnie Vassar.
According to Vassar and another person who was present, Collins yelled, "Johnnie, you I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.ing suck."
By any reasonable standard, Vassar had little to do with Northwestern's struggles. A seldom-used reserve, he had played one garbage-time minute against the Huskers. Yet, according to Vassar and another person who was present, Collins continued to berate the backup guard.
Another teammate later texted Vassar that he couldn't believe what he had witnessed, calling their coach's behavior "one of the most bs things I've seen" in his years playing college basketball. The teammate added, "It is all bullI'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this., and Collins is a huge I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this., I mean so many stupid things, but you are in the right, and have done things the right way/have maintained your attitude."
-Apparently Collins' staff directly tried to encourage Vassar to transfer:
Two days after the game, Northwestern director of player development Ryan Humphrey, now an assistant coach at Notre Dame, texted Vassar to meet in the coaches' office before practice. There, according to Vassar, he sat down with Humphrey and assistant coach Armon Gates, and the two men broached a subject he hadn't expected to come up: transferring to another school.
"They said, 'Coach wanted me to speak to you about what was going on lately,'" Vassar told VICE Sports. "They said, 'I know you've been frustrated, are you thinking about transferring?'"
According to Vassar, he told Humphrey and Gates that while it was frustrating that he was not able to play as much as he had hoped, he was not interested in transferring. Vassar said his coaches asked again, and that he again said no.
-When Vassar refused to transfer, the program appears to have taken some shady routes to get him off of athletic scholarship, including forcing him into an internship not required by his scholarship and then using some contested facts about his performance at said internship to try to get him off the team, and then alleging his performance at said internship was so subpar as to lose his scholarship all together (which Vassar strongly contests).
Even though Vassar did not choose to transfer, the university could still take him off the basketball team as long as it allowed him to keep his promised four-year athletic scholarship.
According to Vassar, Polisky called and told him that in order to keep his scholarship, he and his mother would be required to sign a Non-Participant Agreement that would allow Vassar to keep his athletic scholarship as long as he worked eight hours per week in the school's Wildcat Internship Program and remained compliant with NCAA rules, such as those regarding amateurism and drug testing. Cherise and Vassar said that they then met with Northwestern vice president for athletics and recreation Jim Phillips, Collins, Polisky, associate athletic director for compliance Aaron Hosman, and a member of the school's financial aid office on July 1, 2015, to sign the form.
Cherise said that she and and her son signed the agreement because they believed that he would lose his athletic scholarship if they didn't. One of the NCAA Division I school compliance officials who spoke to VICE Sports said that isn't the case. "You can't push them off to another obligation," the official said. "There's nowhere in the NCAA manual that says anything about that. If they say, 'you need to do 40 community service hours,' no, you don't. It doesn't say anything about that." Another NCAA Division I school compliance official confirmed that analysis to VICE Sports.
-Other players have made similar allegations about Collins trying to use the "run-off" to get them to transfer.
There's a lot more in the article about the problems with transferring and "run-offs" in the NCAA as a whole, making clear this isn't a Collins/Northwestern specific problem. There's also a lot more details about the actual lawsuit that Vassar and his mother are filing that, to be honest, seem pretty damning.
Personally, I'm not sure how to feel about this... I'm not sure if this is just something horrible that happens in college basketball because of NCAA rules and Collins is just doing something that everyone else does (which, of course, is still morally questionable at the absolute best) or whether Collins really went above and beyond to make Vassar's life miserable. Additionally, all these things are still just allegations, but like I said Vice tends to do pretty in-depth reporting and the evidence cited seems fairly damning.
Regardless, if any of this is true it's extremely, extremely sad on all fronts. This seems to be another sobering example of how there are no more real feel good stories in today's world, apparently.
Hopefully I did a decent job summarizing above, but again I'd strongly suggest reading the whole article. It goes very much into the nitty-gritty of the situation and puts it into context amongst the issue of transferring as a whole very well.
Curious to see what people in the know, particularly those who may have personal experience with Collins, think about this. Hopefully, hopefully, HOPEFULLY this is something that has gotten blown out of proportion and I can still root for Chris and NU next year (except when they're playing Michigan, haha).