After firing Tubby Smith on Monday, Minnesota could be interested in hiring Duke assistant Chris Collins for the Gophers’ vacant head coaching position, according to the Chicago Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein.
Minnesota interested in Duke’s Chris Collins for head coach, according to report
Just one day after emerging as the favorite for the Northwestern head coaching job, Duke assistant Chris Collins is also a candidate at Minnesota, according to reports. The Golden Gophers fired Tubby Smith on Monday after six seasons on the job.
Sara D. Davis
On Tuesday afternoon, Greenstein tweeted the following:
Another reason for #Northwestern to get the Collins hire done ASAP ... sources tells me that Minnesota is interested in talking to him.
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) March 26, 2013
The news comes just one day after Minnesota fired Tubby Smith, and on the same day that CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman reported that Collins had interviewed for the vacant Northwestern head coaching job on Monday. Northwestern fired head coach Bill Carmody last week and Collins has since emerged as the favorite for the Wildcats’ head coaching job.
Meanwhile, Minnesota will be starting fresh after six seasons under Smith’s watch, and a stretch which produced three NCAA Tournament appearances, but just one win. That victory came in a Round of 64 defeat of UCLA last Friday, and was Minnesota’s first NCAA Tournament win since the 1997 season.
Collins is a former Duke player, and has been an assistant at the school since 2000. He was promoted to the associate head coach position prior to the 2008-2009 season.
Collins is also the son of Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doug Collins.
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