Northwestern and basketball coach Chris Collins have agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2030, the school announced on Friday.
Collins is the only coach in the program’s 120-year history to lead Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats made it for the first time in 2017 and returned in 2023 and 2024 after five straight losing seasons.
Collins has a 194-190 record in 12 years. He is second on the program’s all-time wins list behind Dutch Lonborg, who was 236-203 from 1928 to 1950. The Wildcats finished 17-16 this past season after a 10-3 start and tied for 12th in the Big Ten at 7-13.
“Northwestern is my family’s home,” Collins said in a statement. “I am really proud of what we have built over the last 12 years with our basketball program and couldn’t be more excited to continue the journey together. I am grateful to President Michael Schill and [athletic director] Mark Jackson for their continued belief in me. We are all aligned to work to create even more history in the future. Go ‘Cats!”
Jackson, who was hired away from Villanova in August, called Collins “one of the top coaches in the country.”
“While his on-the-court performance certainly warrants this extension, I’m more impressed with what Chris represents off the court, the way our student-athletes carry themselves as young men, the way they graduate from one of the top institutions in the world, and the overall culture that everyone connected to Northwestern Basketball buys into,” he said. “Chris, with the help of so many, has created all of it, including an environment in Welsh-Ryan Arena that is second to none. The energy of our basketball program helps elevate all aspects of our athletic department.”
Collins’ name was linked to the opening at Villanova, which fired Kyle Neptune after three years three weeks ago and hired Maryland’s Kevin Willard. He has ties to Philadelphia, where his father Doug spent eight years playing for the NBA’s 76ers, but he also has a strong connection to the Chicago area.
Collins grew up about 10 miles from Welsh-Ryan Arena in suburban Northbrook and was chosen Mr. Basketball in Illinois. He went on to star at Duke and spent 13 years as an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski before taking over at Northwestern in 2013.
Northwestern, which hosted the inaugural NCAA championship game in 1939, finally made the tournament in Collins’ fourth season. The Wildcats won 24 games and beat Vanderbilt before losing to Gonzaga. But instead of emerging as a consistent winner, Northwestern went 60-90 overall and 26-71 in conference play over the next five years.
The heat on Collins was so high following the 2021-22 season that then-athletic director Derrick Gragg released a statement saying the coach would get at least one more year to turn around his struggling program. Northwestern went 22-12 and made the NCAA each of the next two seasons, and Collins got a three-year extension through 2028 two years ago.
