In assembling his first staff as a head coach, Chris Collins will retain assistant Tavaras Hardy at Northwestern, according to the Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune.
Beyond filling out this year's recruiting class, one of Collins' main goals will be getting Drew Crawford to stick around for another season. The senior was the Wildcats' leading scorer this season before getting sidelined after 10 games due to shoulder surgery. He should now have a fifth year of eligibility and Tavaras is seen as the best link to Crawford.
Also included in that story: Collins will tab all of his assistants as assistant coaches and none will hold rank as an associate head coach. This is different than what has been done at Duke in recent years.
Collins joined the Duke staff as an assistant coach in 2000 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2008. Fellow assistant Steve Wojciechowski was also promoted to associate head coach in 2008.
In that span, Nate James and Jeff Capel have both been assistant coaches.
As Collins looks to round out his staff, Greenstein notes former Blue Devils Greg Paulus and Jon Scheyer could be candidates for positions. Paulus is currently the video coordinator at Ohio State, and Scheyer is currently playing professionally in Spain.
Both stars at Glenbrook North and from the same town, Collins and Scheyer have a close relationship. When Collins was hired at Northwestern, we spoke to Scheyer who gave us his thoughts on why he thinks Collins wil excel in Evanston.
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