Love and Basketball: Collins Has a Super Strong Hoops Bond With Mom
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, MAY 13, 2018 – Instead of being like Mike,
David Collins wants to be just like Dorothy.
On this Mother's Day, the emerging star USF guard will likely talk basketball like usual with his hero and No. 1 fan, who remains the all-time leading scorer in Youngstown State women's hoops history.
"I'm always trying to get past my mom," Collins said with a smile during the season. "She still thinks she's the best basketball player in the house."
This debate will go on for Collins' next few seasons in green and gold while his close relationship with Dorothy continues to grow stronger with each pregame routine that always starts the same way.
"He calls me and says, 'What do you think?' I'll ask him about the scouting report and just kind of go over his game plan," Dorothy said. "… It always ends with, 'I love you. Go out and do your best no matter what. You're going to have good things, you're going to have bad things. That's just life.'"
Love and basketball have always been a part of Collins' lifelong bond with Dorothy that started to grow when he was an infant. The same goes for Collins' older sister, Doriyon, who played basketball for Division II Gannon University in Erie, Pa..
"From the time they were born, they were in their little basketball outfits," said Dorothy, a former power forward. "David probably started dribbling the basketball at 2 years old."
By 3, Collins would be out in the driveway early in the mornings dribbling a basketball nearly the size of him while the neighbors marveled at his ability in Youngstown, Ohio.
"We would just laugh at how he could control the basketball," Dorothy said.
By the time Collins suited up USF, Dorothy was amazed by her son's enhanced ball-handling skills after spending the summer working in head coach
Brian Gregory's program. By the end of conference play, Dorothy was a super proud mom after watching her son put together the eighth-best scoring season in USF freshman history (10.0 ppg).
Collins finished second among freshmen in The American with 11.3 points per game in league play while ranking in USF's freshman season top 10 in field goal percentage (49.7, eighth), free throw percentage (71.7, ninth), made free throws (81, fourth), free throw attempts (113, fifth), assists (65, 10
th) and steals (28, ninth).
"He just exceeded all of the expectations that we kind of talked about from the start. In the beginning, we were just asking the Lord if he could just get some playing time," Dorothy said. "… Dave making the conference all-rookie team, scoring and coming on strong at the end of the season, it just gave us another target to go after. I'm very impressed."
Collins put the icing on the cake for Dorothy in USF's season finale by becoming the fifth USF freshman in school history to score 30 points in a close battle with Memphis at the conference tournament. By then, Dorothy had racked up frequent flyer miles while attending 18 games throughout the season and appreciated her son listening to her court advice along the way.
"It feels great," she said. "I feel like he believes in me. He believes what I'm telling him about basketball."
For Collins, believing in mom has been easy because of what she accomplished on the court. Dorothy averaged 21.5 points in her collegiate career from 1984-88 and still has Youngstown State's top career scoring mark (2,324 points).
Breaking mom's school record is on Collins' radar after scoring 269 points this past season, which is actually ahead of Dorothy's pace.
"I'll always have the stats unless he breaks (the record)," Dorothy said. "He broke the freshman stats (record) because I only had like 254 points. He tells me, 'And I missed five games.' I've got to hear it or whatever. That's going to be a hard feat to beat and if he does it, I'm proud."
As for the debate about which hoops talent is the best ever in the family, Dorothy is holding onto the distinction as long as she can.
"Just because I'm the mother, I'm always going to say I'm the greatest," she said with a laugh. "He may surpass me. He may go onto the next level, the NBA or overseas, but I'm going to still always be the greatest in the house. They know it."
About USF Men's Basketball
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