March 1, 2017: a day that will live forever in the annals of Northwestern basketball history.
With 1.7 seconds on the clock in Northwestern’s clash with Michigan, Nathan Taphorn prepared for a last-ditch effort. Taphorn rifled a ball 94 feet into Dererk Pardon’s hands, who laid the ball up as time expired.
Pandemonium ensued.
A dogpile of players and coaches coalesced around the scorer’s table at half-court. Back on the Wildcats’ bench, Brian James, coach Chris Collins’ top assistant, stood with his fists raised and a big smile on his face. He’d drawn up the play that sent NU to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
“We had never been in that situation before where we were able to have a game of that magnitude, and that’s what we elected to do,” James said. “And luckily for us it worked out.”
To James, it was a full circle moment — his love for the game, his extensive knowledge and his familial bond with Collins had aligned.
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James was first introduced to the Collins family in 1973, when James became an undergraduate student assistant for Illinois State. The semester before, Doug Collins, Chris Collins’ father, finished his decorated Redbirds career and was selected first overall in the 1973 NBA draft.
It was during James and Doug Collins’ first years in their new environments that their paths crossed.
“His first couple years in the NBA, he would come back and visit his college stomping grounds,” James said. “(He would) play pickup basketball for a month to work himself in shape for the regular season.”
Doug Collins and James’ friendship developed during pickup games as their careers took off. The elder Collins embarked on a nine-year NBA career, while James graduated from Illinois State in 1977 and began his high school coaching career.
His connection with the Collins family grew when he was offered a job as the head coach at Glenbrook North High School in 1989, where a 14-year-old Chris Collins had just finished his freshman campaign. James says the young hooper set a great example.
“People gravitated towards him,” James said. “When your best player is your hardest worker, others follow suit.”
Under James’ tutelage, the program climbed from 12 wins to the school’s first conference title since 1973 in Chris Collins’ junior year to 27 wins in his senior year. James continued coaching at Glenbrook North until 1995, while Chris Collins headed to Durham to play for Duke.
In 1995, a new chapter in James’ coaching career began.
James spent 14 years in the NBA with five teams, three of which were coached by Doug Collins. He helped coach NBA superstars like Michael Jordan during his Wizards return in 2001, and coached Grant Hill, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
As his acumen grew, James also learned of the instability of coaching in the NBA. None of his jobs lasted longer than three seasons.
“As soon as your head coach is either fired or doesn’t want to do it anymore, usually all the assistants are sent packing as well,” James said. “That’s why I had to move five times.”
In 2013, Doug Collins resigned from his job as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and retired. James was once again forced to find a new home –– this time without his longtime friend.
That same year, Chris Collins, 16 years into an assistant coaching career, decided to leave his assistant post at Duke to become a head coach. James was one of the first people the younger Collins turned to when he started at NU.
“I knew that I was going to need to hire someone that had been a head coach, that had been around the game for a long time, that could be a great mentor for me,” Collins said. “Someone that I knew was gonna have my back.”
For James, it was either staying in the NBA or reuniting with his former player. He said he had spoken with Chris Collins about working together someday, the offer was too good to turn down.
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When James arrived at NU for the 2013-14 season, his purpose was twofold: to be a valuable support system to players and coaches and handle the development of the frontcourt.
After two losing seasons in Evanston, James helped the ’Cats to their first winning season under Collins in the 2015-16 season.
Off the court, James’ role was to be a self-described “grandfather figure.”
“I know how hard it is to be a student-athlete at this school,” James said. “So I tried to be somebody that (players) could (visit) in the office, watch tape, talk X’s and O’s or not talk X’s and O’s.”
On the court, he continued to be a sounding-board to Collins through the good times — the Pardon game-winner — and the bad — the stretch between 2017 and 2021 where the team never won more than six Big Ten games in a season.
As NU worked to right the ship, James would preach the same message that Collins would, just in his own, more reserved style.
“I try to be a conduit of what (Chris Collins) was trying to do,” James said. “Whether I preach that in a little different tone or (with) different wordage, we’re still on the same page.”
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After yet another middling finish in the Big Ten in the 2021-22 season and the departures of Ryan Young and Pete Nance to the transfer portal, many predicted another subpar season for the ’Cats last year.
With a void in the frontcourt, Collins placed his faith in inexperienced center Matthew Nicholson, who’d been with the program for two years.
Nicholson proved effective, helping to anchor NU’s interior defense. His leap was best characterized by his 17-point, nine-rebound performance in an NCAA Tournament round-of-32 loss to UCLA.
But to James, it was no surprise. Nicholson had trusted in the coaching staff, particularly James’ development process.
“It takes big guys, in my mind, two to three years to mature (and) develop,” James said. “They’re not going to walk in their first game as a freshman and be a finished product; they have to grow and mature into their body.”
James said Nicholson’s willingness to be coached and his work ethic allowed him to soak up the coach’s pointers and sit comfortably in his new role.
The ’Cats also had major turnover in staffing with a pair of young assistant coaches in Bryant McIntosh and Talor Battle. Battle was entering just his third year of coaching and McIntosh was a newly-appointed assistant for the season.
Chris Collins said James’ presence was critical to their development as well.
“We have two young guys that are going to be outstanding coaches in the future,” he said. “But they’re young, so to have coach James and coach (Chris) Lowery to kind of mentor them as coaches, it’s been an amazing resource for us.”
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As James enters his 11th season in Evanston, he said the longevity of his position means he can live and coach in his hometown and near his children without worrying about constantly moving.
James will once again be a special advisor to the head coach this year. For Collins, having his high school coach by his side gives him much-needed support as NU looks to return to March Madness and notch the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance.
“He’s really someone that I lean on,” Chris Collins said.
While James said the bright lights of pro basketball and head coaching are long behind him, he’s content in knowing his destiny led him to Evanston — to the place he’s supposed to be.
“I’ve got a different role now than what I used to have back when I was younger and in the NBA, and it’s been a good thing,” James said. “I wouldn’t have traded it for any other job.”
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @raj_ghanekar1
