Northwestern practice notes: Feb. 17

Here's what Chris Collins and Scottie Lindsey had to say prior to Northwestern practice on Tuesday.

- Collins said JerShon Cobb is definitely out Wednesday against Minnesota. "It's game by game," Collins said. "If he feels he's able to play and help, then I'll use him." Cobb also missed Sunday's game against Iowa.

- Scottie Lindsey tweeted on Sunday morning that he had "been waiting a very long time for" the Iowa game, and Chris Collins said following the game that it was "personal" for Lindsey. Lindsey (possibly under instruction from Nick Brilowski, Northwestern's basketball SID) wouldn't comment on why it was personal. But while we don't want to speculate, we can probably connect the dots. Lindsey had a scholarship offer from Iowa, but broke his leg prior to his senior season in high school. When questioned about whether Iowa honored its offer, Lindsey said "no comment," but had a smile on his face.

- Collins says he gets on Lindsey for being too "cool and chill," and says he tries to imitate Lindsey's walk to make fun of him. Lindsey, however, played with a lot of intensity Sunday, so Collins jokingly said he told Lindsey "he screwed up. He showed Sunday what he can do, so he's got no excuse now."

- Collins did get to see videos of his dad's reactions after the game, and said the two joked about them. "I'm a parent, so I kind of understand to a certain level," Chris said. "My kids play sports, and when you're sitting there, you feel helpless... And he [Doug] is a passionate guy. But it was funny to see him trending worldwide on Twitter. That was pretty cool."

- Chris on Doug: "It's tough, when he's a coach too and knows so much about the game, it's almost a curse when you're watching. You're always thinking about the things that can go wrong. Because he's so smart and knows the game so well, it almost hurts him when he's watching.

- Chris on his interactions with his dad: "We rarely talk about Xs and Os. Maybe that sounds crazy, but a lot of the conversations we have are about the journey of going through the season."

- Collins said Bryant McIntosh saw Doug after the game and was giving him a hard time about his nerves. "Coach," he apparently said, "you should know that when I'm at the line, I'm going to knock them down. Why is your head in your hands? You had no confidence in me?"

- Collins on Sanjay Lumpkin: "For a stretch of games, he wasn't that guy we needed; that hustle guy, that dirty-work guy... For whatever reason, he had gotten away from that a little bit, and I thought it was back on Sunday." Collins says he had many individual meetings with Lumpkin about his role, and that he was proud of the way Lumpkin responded.

- To open practice, the Wildcats were working on 2-3 zone rotations. Collins said he didn't know whether Northwestern is "a 2-3 team" now, but joked that we should start calling him "Boeheim Jr." He mentioned, though, that his players now have a lot more confidence with it.

- Collins said the big thing with the zone is that it keeps Alex Olah near the basket. He pointed out that when Northwestern plays man, teams design their offense to take Olah away from the basket. It was too much to ask of Olah to guard on the perimeter, be a rim protector and be the team's leading rebounder all at the same time.