'Wojo,' Collins became friends through thick and thinRacine Journal Times
April 21, 2014
by Peter Jackal
http://journaltimes.com/sports/peter-jackel-wojo-collins-became-friends-through-thick-and-thin/article_bc1c2c84-c9b8-11e3-862f-001a4bcf887a.htmlThey became pals just before cracks started surfacing in the kingdom known as the Duke University men’s basketball program.
It was the spring of 1994 when a coveted All-American guard from Cardinals Gibbons High School in Baltimore named Steve Wojciechowski showed up at the Duke campus for a visit. His host was Chris Collins, the son of former NBA great Doug Collins, who would be a junior guard that fall.
“He stayed with me for the weekend,” Collins said. “I didn’t screw it up too bad because he ended up committing. I did my duty as a host and that’s kind of how our friendship began.”
Twenty years later, the two are separated by the 80 miles between Milwaukee and Evanston, Ill. Collins just completed his first season as coach of the Northwestern program. And Wojciechowski was just hired to replace Buzz Williams as Marquette’s coach.
And after all these years, these two guys are closer than ever.
They played two years together under Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. They went on to serve as assistants under Krzyzewski for 13 seasons at Duke starting in 2000. They stood up in each other’s wedding. They lived two doors from each other on Sycamore Shoals Road in Durham, N.C. Their wives are friends. Their kids hung out with each other.
This is a bond that has only tightened through the years.
“It started on my visit to Duke and when we played together,” Wojciechowski said. “We spent a lot of time together, as coaches with both with Duke basketball and USA Basketball and as close as we were as players, that’s the time our friendship hit an even higher level.”
The first year of their friendship came under difficult circumstances. Duke had appeared in the previous four Final Fours when Wojciechowski was an incoming freshman, with national championships in 1992 and ’93, but adversity was on the horizon.
Krzyzewski underwent back surgery that fall, tried to return too soon and was forced to step down for the season after 12 games. The Blue Devils were 9-3 at that point, but capsized under interim coach Pete Gaudet, going 4-15 the rest of the way.
“We had played in the national championship game the year before and then the bottom just fell out,” Collins said. “Coach got sick and we ended up finishing last in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). We obviously dealt with a lot of criticism and it was a real tough time in Duke basketball and we were two of the guys who had to go through that.”
Through it all, Collins and Wojciechowski were able to emotionally lean on each other. Maybe the longest season in the last 50 years of Duke basketball was just a little more tolerable for Collins and Wojciechowski because they had each other as friends. Collins had the ultimate kid brother in Wojciechowski.
As the two gutted through that miserable season — Collins started just three games because of an injury — certain characteristics started to emerge within Wojciechowski that foreshadowed where he is today. Even as a freshman, Collins’ pal was showing the stuff of a future coach.
“He’s a guy where, when he’s your friend, there’s no better guy that you want on your side,” Collins said. “He’s going to fight with you, he’s going to be honest with you and he’s always going to find a way.”
That has been Wojciechowski’s modus operandi ever since. During his next three seasons as a starter, he helped Duke rebound with records of 18-13, 24-9 and 32-4. And with Collins and Wojciechowski serving as Krzyzewski’s right-hand men, Duke won national championships in 2001 and ’10.
Now that Wojciechowski has moved on to Marquette, Collins sees a coaching great in the making. Call Collins biased, but he speaks as someone who knows Wojciechowski as a basketball mind.
“First of all, he’s got a very good feel and mind for the game,” Collins said. “He’s very smart and the other thing is, he’s got a great way with the guys. He’s a no-nonsense type of guy. He’s going to hold the guys accountable in everything they do — but in a good way.
“He has a great way of being tough with the guys and being demanding while, at the same time, making all the guys feel that he cares.”
Meanwhile, a certain legend is going to be keeping an eye from afar on his two proteges.
“Chris and Steve are so much alike,” Krzyzewski said. “They truly are brothers and for me as their coach to see them develop a relationship of being great teammates to where they become great friends to where they become great coaches together, that process for me to be a part of it every step of the way was fascinating.
“They are two of the most competitive people you will ever be around.”
