Former Duke basketball teammates on late-season watchlist

Neither has his team ranked in the AP Top 25 — not yet, anyway. Nevertheless, former Duke basketball teammates Chris Collins and Jeff Capel are on the 15-deep Naismith Coach of the Year late-season watchlist that came out this week.

In his 10th year at Northwestern following 13 years on the Duke basketball staff, Collins has his Wildcats (19-7, 10-5 Big Ten) at No. 2 in the Big Ten standings. They've won four straight, including two wins over ranked foes (then-No. 1 Purdue and No. 14 Indiana), and look to earn only the second NCAA Tournament bid in program history.

As for Capel, now in his fifth season at Pitt following seven seasons as an assistant under three-time Naismith winner Mike Krzyzewski in Durham, he has guided his Panthers (19-7, 12-3) to six straight wins and into a tie with Virginia atop the ACC standings.

Both Collins and Capel had losing records in each of the four seasons prior to this one. For Collins, it was five straight losing seasons following his team's trip to the Sweet 16 in 2017.

Here are the other coaches who ended up on the Naismith watchlist:

Randy Bennett (St. Mary's)
Mick Cronin (UCLA)
Dennis Gates (Missouri)
Pat Kelsey (Charleston)
Dusty May (Florida Atlantic)
Sean Miller (Xavier)
Nate Oats (Alabama)
TJ Otzelberger (Iowa State)
Matt Painter (Purdue)
Kelvin Sampson (Houston)
Shaka Smart (Marquette)
Jerome Tang (Kansas State)
Rodney Terry (Texas)

The list of 10 semifinalists comes out on March 9 before it dwindles to four finalists on March 20. Then the winner is named at the Final Four in Houston on April 2.

Pitt next plays at Virginia Tech at 5 p.m. ET Saturday. And Northwestern hosts Iowa at 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

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