User:Dkerr23/Jimmy Collins

Jimmy Collins is a former player and coach of the sport of men's basketball. He starred at New Mexico State before briefly playing for the Chicago Bulls. Collins really made his mark on the basketball world during his coaching career, which began at the University of Illinois as an assistant coach under legendary head coach Lou Henson. He eventually became the head coach for the UIC Flames and had 14 successful seasons before retiring. Unfortunately, he may be most known for the long-time controversy between him and former Iowa assistant coach Bruce Pearl surrounding the recruitment of high school star Deon Thomas from Chicago.

Early Life
Jimmy Collins was born November 24, 1946 in Syracuse, New York, where he spent his entire childhood. After finishing his high school career at Corcoran High School, he then attended and played basketball at New Mexico State University, where he played under his future coaching mentor, Lou Henson. Collins starred for the Aggies during his 3-year career, earning All-American honors and scoring over 24 points per game en route to leading his team to an impressive 27-3 record and advancing to the Final Four in 1970. Following his collegiate career, Collins was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the 11th pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA Draft. Following a brief career with the Bulls and the Carolina Cougars formally of the American Basketball Association, Collins returned to New Mexico State to begin his coaching career under his former coach Lou Henson as a graduate assistant. Collins worked here for two years and then left the coaching profession to begin his own trucking business in Chicago. Then in 1983, he joined forces once again with Lou Henson as an assistant coach for the University of Illinois Fighting Illini.

Coaching Jobs

 * New Mexico State Aggies (graduate assistant)
 * University of Illinois Fighting Illini (assistant coach)
 * University of Illinois-Chicago Flames (head coach)



Illinois
Jimmy Collins joined legendary coach Lou Henson as an assistant coach for the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. He quickly became well known in college basketball circles as a superior recruiter as he brought prominent names from the Chicago area high schools down to Champaign such as the following: These players, along with many others, were integral parts of a period of strong Illini basketball success running from the late 80s through the 90s. This includes the 1989 team, arguably the most exciting and successful Illini basketball team ever up until that point, which made a run to the 1989 Final Four. Their electric play on the court garnered significant attention nationwide, sparking renowned analyst Dick Vitale to create the moniker, the Flyin' Illini, due to their high-flying dunks and explosive fast breaks. While Henson received much of the praise, and deservedly so, Collins deserves a great deal amount of credit as well for his abilities to attract great players and work with them to further develop their skills. The Henson-Collins team is largely credited with paving the way for the future of Illini basketball by setting the standards higher than ever before. This has led to Illinois becoming one of the premier college basketball schools in the country, including the memorable run to the 2005 National Championship game. Collins worked as an assistant under Henson for 13 years before leaving to finally become the head coach, his ultimate dream, of the UIC Flames.
 * Kendall Gill
 * Marcus Liberty
 * Nick Anderson
 * Deon Thomas
 * Kenny Battle
 * Kiwane Garris
 * Lowell Hamilton

Illinois-Chicago
Jimmy Collins was hired in 1996 as the head coach of Illinois-Chicago. He took over a team that really struggled historically, never making a single postseason appearance and only reached 20 wins just twice in nearly 50 years before his arrival. Collins quickly changed their fortunes. He led them to a conference championship and first ever NCAA tournament berth just two years later in 1998, racking up a school record 22 wins and numerous coach of the year awards. Utilizing his recruiting prowess that helped bring in multiple future NBA stars while at Illinois, Collins realed in a heralded 2000 class that would go on to lead the most successful 3-year run in school history. UIC would go on to make the NCAA tournament again in 2002 and 2004, with an NIT appearance in between. Collins' 2004 team eclipsed his previous wins record with 24 wins. In 2007, Collins was forced to miss the final 19 games of the season in order to undergo a procedure to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He returned to the sideline for the 2008 season to lead his team once again. In the following season, Collins recorded his 200th win at UIC with a marquee victory of Georgia Tech. In 2010, Collins stepped down as head coach and decided to retire. He left UIC as the program's all-time winningest coach with 218 victories over his successful 14 year career.

Bruce Pearl Controversy
As an assistant coach at Illinois, Collins was putting forth his best effort into the recruitment of high school sensation Deon Thomas out of Simeon Career Academy. His recruitment became a heated battle between Collins and Iowa assistant coach, Bruce Pearl. When Thomas chose to sign with instate Illinois, Pearl started a controversy that still to this day is argued about. Pearl constantly called Thomas wondering why he chose Illinois over Iowa, and one day Thomas decided he had enough. Over a phone conversation, he told Pearl that Collins offered him money and a car just to get Pearl to leave him alone. Little did he know, Pearl was illegally recording the conversation. Pearl then turned over the tapes to the NCAA, which then launched a full-scale investigation. They never found any proof of the car or money, or even the offer for that matter. Along with that, the tapes Pearl handed over were choppy, almost as if they were edited with different parts spliced together. Due to the shady evidence and lack of any real proof, the NCAA never found anything to make any kind of case against the Illinois basketball program. They instead decided to hand down severely unfair penalties for the mythical "lack of institutional control," which really means they had nothing but wanted to punish them anyway. Many conspiracy theories are floated around amongst fans as to how this could possibly happen, most of them centered around a witch hunt against Illinois. Collins was cleared of any wrongdoing, but his reputation was forever tarnished due to the allegations made by Pearl. He has, however, always handled the situation with the utmost class and respect.

When asked today, Collins still expresses a strong bitterness towards Pearl. This controversy still sparks a feud filled with strong hatred between Illinois and Iowa fans, even more than 20 years later. Then in 2010, Pearl was caught by the NCAA for major recruiting infractions and lying to NCAA officials about the matter which resulted in his firing as head coach of Tennessee. This led to a small feeling of redemption for Illini fans.