Collins Plans Three Trips

Brett Collins, an aggressive 6-4, 215 pound small forward from Mountain Pointe H.S. in Phoenix, Ariz., is planning to take a trio of official visits within the next several weeks.

Collins, who helped the Arizona Stars reach the elite eight at last week's Best of the Summer Tournament in Los Angeles, told Rivalshoops that he has pledged official trips to Kent State, Loyola Marymount and Utah.

Collins will visit Kent from August 29-31, and LMU the following weekend (Sept. 6-7). His next trip is likely to be to Utah, although no official date has been set for that.

In addition to those three programs, Collins is also considering Arizona State, Stanford and St. Mary's. Of the six schools on his list, four (Utah, ASU, Kent and LMU) have offered scholarships.

"I am going to wait until I take my visits before making a decision," Collins said late Friday evening.

Prior to the July evaluation period, Arizona State had yet to offer Collins, but his strong play at a number of events this summer led to a scholarship offer earlier this month via the telephone.

In fact, Collins visited the Tempe based school unofficially this past Tuesday, Aug. 6.

"I talked to the coaching staff in their office, and then they showed me the facilities," he said. "They had already offered me over the phone, but they reemphasized that the offer was there for me."

Collins really does not have a true position on the basketball court, but many schools like him for his hard nosed play out on the basketball court.

Rivalshoops has had a ton of chances to evaluate him this spring and summer, and here's the skinny on Collins: the southpaw is an adequate athlete with a penchant for scoring around the basket, and he knows how to finesse shots (floaters, hooks, etc...) over taller defenders in the paint.

He will slash to the hole occasionally off the dribble, but he's not explosive off the bounce, nor does he handle it well for extended periods. But he rebounds, hustles and does a lot of things that don't show up in the boxscore. If his perimeter jumper develops more consistency, Collins becomes that much tougher of an assignment for opposing defenses.

In a nutshell, he's a high school post player who will need to make a transition to the wing for the Division I level.

This past season at Mountain Pointe, Collins averaged 11 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block per contest. He said he has a 3.2 GPA and scored a 1090 on the SAT.

Collins' busy summer included pitstops at the adidas ABCD Camp in New Jersey, the Nike Peach Jam Invitational in South Carolina, the adidas Big Time Tournament in Nevada and the Best of the Summer Tournament in California. He attended the latter three events with Art Dye's Arizona Stars program.

We will keep you posted on Collins' recruitment in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.