Home run probable for UT star Collier
AUSTIN — Back in his prime, folks used to call NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire “STAT.” The moniker stood for “Standing Tall and Talented,” appropriate for the statuesque 6-10 forward and his thunderbolt dunks.
It’s a nickname that would fit Charli Collier well, too.
The Texas junior has the “tall” — she’s 6-5 — and “talented” — she averaged 19 points and 11.3 rebounds as a junior — aspects covered. Though Collier, a budding businesswoman who launched a basketball-centric talk show online, wouldn’t stoop so low as to hijack someone else’s nickname, few would deny she exudes all the qualities of a future WNBA star.
“When you look at Charli, she looks like a WNBA player,” Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said last week. “She’s big and strong, has a great frame, plays really hard. She added the 3-point shot, which a stretch four (power forward) needs to have now in the WNBA. She’s got a good-looking stroke. She’s got decent hands.”
Nothing has been confirmed regarding the former Longhorn’s future home. Still, the Dallas Wings’ fixation with Collier as the top pick in Thursday’s virtual WNBA draft isn’t a secret.
The Wings actually own the first two slots in this year’s draft, so whether it’s with the first or second selection, Collier likely will remain in her home state. The former Barbers Hill star would be a valuable addition to a franchise that has won just one playoff series since reaching the 2009 Eastern
Conference finals, a stretch of futility that included relocations from Detroit to Tulsa, Okla., and finally to Dallas.
Collier is in the early stages of becoming a coveted unicorn, a towering two-way force who can splash 3s, smack away shots and guzzle double-digit rebounds. She posted at least 20 points and 10 boards in 14 of 31 games for UT and hit at least one triple with 10-plus rebounds in seven contests.
“I think Charli Collier has been in that top group of players and continues to be in that top group of players,” Dallas Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb said last week. “Obviously, there were some games this past year that I would assume would be disappointing to her in terms of her performance. But you have to remember, too, there are always multiple aspects to performance. It’s not just the individual output.
“There’s aspects relative to the opponents. There are aspects relative to the game plan. There are aspects relative to the matchups. So I don’t really look at a particular player sliding from one specific spot to another. I look at them in terms of groupings, and for me she is in that top group.”
Despite Collier’s obvious promise, questions have lingered following a few rickety performances against elite competition.
In three losses to Baylor last season, Collier totaled 17 points (on 5for-14 shooting), 15 rebounds, 14 fouls and nine turnovers. She also struggled in a couple of NCAA Tournament outings, finishing with five points and five rebounds in a second-round win over thirdseeded UCLA and four points on 2for-10 shooting in an Elite Eight loss to top-seeded South Carolina.
But that alone won’t cause Collier to slip. She’s simply too talented to be so adversely affected by a handful of flops during a basketball season played amid a pandemic.
“I think when you see her performance against some teams, in particular Baylor, it makes you take pause a little bit,” Lobo said. “But I think you also have to understand the system she was playing in, a dribble-drive offense, what she was surrounded by. A big is in heaven when they are surrounded by shooters, because it gives them space to be able to operate. Charli wasn’t necessarily surrounded by shooters this year.
“There’s of course a lot to like about her game. You do have questions when you see some of the struggles that she may have had against her opponents, but you also understand kind of the bigger picture of what she was playing with, the system she was playing and all of those things. Certainly a lot to like about Charli.”
When asked what skill he cherishes most in this draft, Bibb uttered one word: “rebounding.”
Dallas grabbed 48.3 percent of available rebounds last season, one one-hundredth of a point ahead of last-place Phoenix. The Wings also ranked second to last in defensive rating (108.0) and points allowed in the paint (40.5).
Collier can fix that. Last season she ranked seventh among highmajor players in rebounding average. Only Delaware forward Ty Battle captured more total offensive boards (142) than Collier (137).
So come Thursday evening, unless Dallas shocks the world, the uber-talented Collier will have one more accolade to add to her growing résumé: first No. 1 overall pick from Texas.