Mar 1, 2023; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Chris Collins gestures to his team during the first half against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Northwestern’s Chris Collins entered the season on the back of a string of very disappointing years.

Yes, Collins has so far been the only coach to ever take Northwestern men’s basketball to an NCAA Tournament, which he accomplished back in 2016-17. They’re in the field this year, having captured the #2 seed in the Big Ten conference tournament; most bracketologists have them hovering around the 6-7 seed line. Considering Northwestern was picked in the preseason Big Ten media poll to finish 13th out of 14 teams, it makes sense that Collins was rewarded today with his first Big Ten Coach of the Year recognition.

So, there we have it; a team beats a poor projection, overachieves for the year, and their coach is rewarded with this kind of recognition. What’s there to complain about?

A lot, actually, in this case! Because Purdue’s Matt Painter is right there, having done all of what Collins achieved this year except with a much stronger set of accomplishments. Purdue was picked fifth to start the year, and they ended up winning the league by three games. That’s real separation in a league that saw impossibly tight standings this season; the three game gap between Purdue and Northwestern is the same spread between Northwestern and 11th/12th place teams Wisconsin and Nebraska.

This isn’t to say Collins did a bad job this year. He was fine. His team overachieved by virtue of leaning into the physical nature of Big Ten play, a style that’s enabled by lackluster and inconsistent officiating. Predictive metrics don’t think the Wildcats are the second-best team in the conference; KenPom has them 43rd in the country, but just ninth in the league.

But let’s jump back to what Matt Painter achieved, because it’s extraordinary. Sure, Purdue flamed out of the NCAA Tournament last year against St. Peter’s, as did a few other teams. They then lost a top-five NBA talent in Jaden Ivey, rolling this year with an all-freshman backcourt of Braden Smith (three star recruit) and Fletcher Loyer (lower four-star.)

If you’re tempted to point to Big Ten Player of the Year Zach Edey as an example of Painter having more to work with, let’s once again roll back to the preseason conference poll, which saw Edey not receive a vote for the preseason version of the award. Plus, crucially, Painter had to change the entire focus of the team that had been (rightly) centered around an explosive lead guard in Ivey, pivoting instead to an offense based around getting the hyper-efficient Edey as many looks as possible.

Purdue is probably going to get a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Painter deserves all the credit in the world. Even outlets covering rival schools like Indiana and Michigan were perplexed:

This year’s Big Ten was a fantastic example of how it’s much, much harder to separate from the pack than it is to move up within it. Painter should have been rewarded for that.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.