Duke’s coaching tree is blossoming in Midwest

The Duke coaching tree is blossoming in the Midwest.

Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski and Northwestern counterpart Chris Collins share a bond that dates to their days at Duke as point guards and assistants under Mike Krzyzewski.

Now the close friends are leading programs on the rise at schools separated by an 80-mile drive on Interstate 94.

Wojciechowski, in his third season at Marquette, is trying to take the school to its first NCAA Tournament since 2013. Collins, in his fourth year on the sideline, has his team close to its first NCAA tourney bid ever.

Imagine how proud Krzyzewski might be if the prized pupils make their first appearances in the tournament as head coaches in the same season.

“I feel like I live and die every game that (Collins coaches). So proud of him,” Wojciechowski said.

Collins says Wojciechowski is like a brother. Their wives are best friends. Heck, the couples even lived four houses apart when they coached together at Duke.

“We’ve been through so much together. In this profession, being a head coach, there (are) not a lot of people that understand what you go through on a daily basis. He and I both do,” Collins said.

They talk on the phone several times a week, exchanging ideas over how to run a play or how to handle the grind of the long season. Often, they’re simply checking in with each other to see how things are going.

“We’re both kind of at similar” points, Collins said. “We’re both in the building stages and it’s been great for me and hopefully for him, too, to have someone you trust, that you can really lean on and help you through different times.”

They’ve had some good talks this season.

Northwestern (21-10, 10-8 Big Ten) has set a program record for wins. The roster includes two Northeast Ohio natives in Dererk Pardon (VASJ) and Gavin Skelly (Westlake)

With a sixth-place finish in the league, the team appears to be in good shape to finally make the NCAAs, though at least one more win in the Big Ten Tournament would give the Wildcats more secure footing on the bubble. They open the conference tourney on March 9 against either Ohio State or Rutgers.

Northwestern lost six of its last nine games , but one of the wins during that season-ending stretch came at then-No. 7 Wisconsin on Feb. 12. Two months earlier, Wojciechowski had a look at Wisconsin, when the Badgers beat Marquette 93-84 in the annual in-state rivalry game.

Wojciechowski offered Collins some tips, right?

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Wojciechowski said with a smile.