Chris Collins was in California to see someone else.
Just a year removed from leading Northwestern to its first NCAA Tournament appearance, Collins was out on the recruiting trail searching for his future point guard. The Wildcats were graduating their floor general in Bryant McIntosh — a four-year starter who had just set the program record for career assists — and Collins needed his replacement.
What he found was a 6-foot-2, 160-pound guard he was not looking for — seemingly no other program was, either — igniting an unlikely chain of events that would help bring NU its second NCAA Tournament berth.
The tantalizing prospect in question? Daniel “Boo” Buie.
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It was the summer of 2018 and Collins — then entering his sixth year helming the ’Cats — journeyed out west, his eyes fixed on the Adidas Summer Championship. He arrived in Ladera Ranch, California, ready to follow the journey of D1 Minnesota, a team boasting several prospects NU was keeping tabs on.
Collins and his staff had extended offers to a pair of frontcourt stars from the Minnesota-based AAU squad — forwards Zeke Nnaji and Tyler Wahl — but the trip mainly served as a chance to evaluate a separate point guard at the competition: future second-round NBA draft pick Tyrell Terry.
But, as D1 Minnesota took the court against Mass Rivals, an unknown guard for the New England-based AAU team immediately caught Collins’ eye. He doesn’t remember the full statline, but Collins believed the guard “had about 30 (points)” in a game against six or seven future Division I players.
“I knew going into the game I could compete at that level,” Buie said. “I (approached the game) like I’m one of those guys — I belong, I fit. They’re not better than me.”
Collins was unsure whether Buie’s game “was just a one-time deal,” though. When he returned later that night for an encore performance, his concerns were immediately put to rest.
“He had like 30 (points),” Collins told reporters five years later, reminiscing on the moment. “I’m like, ‘What are all these other schools missing?’ This kid’s pretty darn good.”
In a game that featured droves of NBA prospects, including an eventual lottery pick in Evan Mobley, Buie stood out.
Buie seemed unfazed by the immense talent Compton Magic rolled out onto the court that day. Over the last five minutes of the first half, he knocked down two touch shots in the lane over current Atlanta Hawk Onyeka Okongwu and a pair of 3-pointers. Buie scored 10 of Mass Rivals’ final 13 points of the half, keeping his team level at the intermission.
Buie’s prolific day continued into the second half. Immediately out of halftime, he buried a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key to take a 32-29 lead. With the Magic seemingly content on allowing Buie to operate in one-on-one space, the Albany, New York, native took full advantage, unleashing his full arsenal of ball handling tricks to free up room for floaters and pull-up jumpers.
“I was always a score-first player,” Buie said. “When I first started playing basketball, I thought about ways to score and I was always playing one-on-one growing up with my friends. Once I got into organized basketball, I realized the importance of sharing (the ball), being able to score and doing both at a high level.”
Though Mass Rivals ultimately fell to the Compton Magic, Buie’s scoring performance captivated Collins once again.
Most of all, though, Collins saw “a gamer,” a player boasting a certain swagger that Collins really liked.
“We thought he had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, a little bit of an edge to him,” Collins said. “It was something we were going to need as we were rebuilding our program.”
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When the dust settled on NU’s class of 2019 recruiting efforts, Collins and his staff had extended 21 scholarship offers — but only one went to a point guard.
Buie, the three-star Gould Academy product who ranked 318th nationally and 44th at his position, according to the recruiting service’s composite rankings, was NU’s top priority.
“I’ve always liked guards that could score and shoot and make plays,” Collins said. “He was a prolific scorer and he was still learning how to be a point guard, but you could see that he could play in pick-and-rolls. He could really put the ball in the basket. He had a burst of quickness that I thought we were really lacking.”
The timeline of events following the chance Californian encounter between Collins and Buie was rather swift.
Collins officially offered Buie on Aug. 1, 2018 , and quickly established his vision for the program with Buie at the helm. Not even two months passed before Buie announced his commitment to NU on Sept. 15 of that year.
“I have kind of always been a super edgy player who carries a chip from just being underrecruited,” Buie said. “Northwestern was the only high major to offer me a scholarship. I believed in myself and I believed that I deserved to play at the highest level, so that’s a huge reason I came here.”
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Brian Snow, one of 247Sports’ recruiting analysts, scouted Buie in November of 2018 following his commitment. Snow billed Buie as “the type of solid prospect who tends to overachieve during his college career.” He also wrote that Buie “should be a starter at some point in his career.”
Buie has started 94 games for Collins, making 115 total appearances in purple and white. His 1,541 career points ranks 10th in program history and he has the chance to unseat the program’s leading all-time scorer, John Shurna, come season’s end.
The once-unknown guard, coming off a career-best season in which he led the ’Cats with 17.3 points and 4.5 assists per game en route to All-Big Ten honors, is now garnering preseason All-American acclaim ahead of his fifth and final campaign in Evanston. He was tabbed to the Bob Cousy Award watch list, bestowed annually to the nation’s top point guard, and received preseason first team all-conference recognition.
“Once I got here and saw (Collins’) vision and heard his story, I just wanted to be a part of the rebuilding,” Buie said on Selection Sunday in March. “That was something when coming into Northwestern, when I signed, I gave my word that I was going to be a part of something special.”
It would have all been for naught had Buie’s captivating 60-point, two-game display not resonated with Collins on that fateful California day. After all, Collins was there to see someone else.
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