Will Chris Collins remain at Northwestern for the long haul?
By Mark Singer Even if this season ends in Salt Lake City Thursday, Chris Collins has firmly cemented his legacy as the greatest basketball coach in Northwestern history. Now the question for Collins is, does he want to add to his legacy in Evanston or somewhere else? Judging by his comments on Selection Sunday, Collins […]
New principal leads renewed dedication toward Senn athletics
By Mark Singer In the final practice before the end of his team’s season, Terrell Walsh pleaded with the players to leave everything on the court the following day. On March 1, the Senn Bulldogs boys basketball team was set to play in the school’s first regional semifinals in nine years. Senn isn’t known for […]
Twitter reacts to Northwestern’s historic NCAA Tournament berth
By Mark Singer The 78-year drought is finally over. Northwestern made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history Sunday, and Twitter users were fairly excited about it. As if nearly eight decades of waiting wasn’t enough, the Wildcats had to sit idly as the CBS selection show crew went through the East, […]
Unexpected coach Terrell Walsh leads Senn’s surprise season
By Mark Singer Robert Spurlin didn’t have an answer to a simple question. In early October, with less than two months to go until the start of a new basketball season, prospective players at Senn High asked their athletic director who was going to coach them. “All I could do was shake my head and […]
Northwestern’s dance with basketball history
By Mark Singer Standing in the same arena of his final high school game some 25 years ago, Chris Collins can’t help but smile when he considers the success of his current team. The rollicking atmosphere at Welsh-Ryan Arena these days, unthinkable until a few months ago, brings the Northwestern coach back to 1992 when […]
Long wait, slow start: Senn falls short in return trip to playoffs
![After eight years of anticipation for this moment, the boys’ basketball team’s first playoff game in nearly a decade, the Senn Bulldogs had to wait another 40 minutes. Marine Academy arrived at Senn at 5 p.m. for a 4:30 tip. Ultimately, though, it was the home team that was slow to show up. Senn trailed early in the first half and never recovered, falling 82-69 Wednesday evening in the first of three playoff games in the Blue North conference. First-year Senn coach Terrell Walsh worried in Tuesday’s practice the players wouldn’t be ready at game time, and his fears were realized when Marine (10-11) went up by 13 midway through the second quarter. “They’ve never made the playoffs, so this is what they do,” Walsh said of his players after the loss. “All season we’ve this been telling them the same thing over and over and they just don’t realize it, so is what happens.” Slow starts have plagued Senn (10-4) throughout the season. Starting point guard Noah Chapman said the team was ready to play, but the group just couldn’t recover after falling behind. “We weren’t nervous,” Chapman said. “We just came out slow, which we always do.” His coach says otherwise. “Yeah, I think they were nervous,” Walsh said. “It is what it is.” Nervous or not, Senn was rattled by the hot hand of Marine’s KeyAndre Spann. The shooting guard scored 18 of his team’s first 22 points and finished with a game-high 27. “We started off slow, and [Spann] hit a couple of shots. He killed us,” Senn assistant coach Marcus Riley said. Riley said the team shouldn’t have been nervous since they were playing at Senn, but it hardly felt like a home game at times. A small group of Marine supporters regularly drowned out any noise by the approximately 60 Senn fans that attended the game. Even though he had a full roster to work with, Walsh stuck to a six-man rotation for the duration of the game. Senn beat Marine less than a month ago with a similar strategy, but Marine Academy simply buried the Bulldogs with 13 made three-pointers. The Bulldogs have two more chances left in pool play to prove they belong in the playoffs. Despite the rough start, Walsh sees his team making it out of pool play, which takes point differential into account. “We have to a blow team out to get back in it,” he said. “I believe it’s going to work in our favor. … We still got two more games. It’s the playoffs. Anything can happen.”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/medill.wordpress.offload/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/02/sennblock-1024x799.jpg)
By Mark Singer After eight years of anticipation for this moment, the boys’ basketball team’s first playoff game in nearly a decade, the Senn Bulldogs had to wait another 40 minutes. Marine Academy arrived at Senn at 5 p.m. for a 4:30 tip. Ultimately, though, it was the home team that was slow to show […]
Senn High students, administrators alike rely on Terrell Walsh
By Mark Singer Terrell Walsh doesn’t blast a whistle or throw chairs around when he’s frustrated with his players at practice. He doesn’t need to. Walsh just slowly shuffles from the sideline to midcourt, never lifting his head but constantly shaking it, and the members of the Senn High varsity boys’ basketball team know they’ve […]
The seven-seconds-or-less Senn Bulldogs
By Mark Singer For the first hour and a half of every practice, the Senn boys’ basketball team focuses on one area: making layups. Early in the preseason, if someone missed a layup, all 45 players on the freshman, sophomore and varsity teams ran the length of the court and back three times. The drills […]
