By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Some of the top college basketball coaches in the country, including Illinois State’s Dan Muller, have been offering guidance to other coaches at Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center the last few days at the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association fall clinic.

Northwestern coach Chris Collins said it’s always special to return to the Twin Cities, where his father Doug Collins began his basketball legendary career in Illinois State.

“I always like to pop over and see the (Doug Collins) statue, see the court,” Collins said. “It’s obviously an amazing tribute for everything my dad’s done for this community.”

Collins, a Duke grad, said Illinois State is basically his family’s school, noting his mother also graduated from ISU.

Collins’ Wildcats made history last spring, becoming the first at Northwestern to reach the NCAA Tournament. Collins said he hopes that breakthrough will help the program reach even better heights.

“There’s no question it was kind of the elephant in the room, can you vet to the NCAA Tournament,” Collins said. “Even though we didn’t talk about it much, it was something that was always there. It was a question that was always asked of me and the players almost every single day.”

For coaches at mid-major conference who are hoping to bolster their NCAA tournament resumes by playing more schools from the so-called Power 5 conferences, Collins said he expects the Big Ten will eventually add more conference games to boost strength of schedule.

“There’s a lot of talk to a lot of the high major programs potentially going to even more which is then going to make it every harder,” Collins said. “It will be interesting to see how that all shakes out.”

Muller, Illinois’ Brad Underwood, St. Joseph’s Phil Martelli, Kansas State’s Bruce Weber, Eastern Illinois’ Jay Spoonhour and Nancy Fahey of the Illini women also hosted sessions during the camp.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].