Collier makes history as top pick
Center first UT men’s or women’s player selected No. 1 overall
AUSTIN — About 12 hours before WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Charli Collier as the top pick in the league’s 2021 virtual draft, Ponda Collier tweeted out a vintage photo of her daughter nestled up against a basketball in their car’s backseat, a toddler adrift in starry hoops dreams.
That heavy-eyed little hoophead Ponda posted a picture of is now the first No. 1 overall pro draft pick from either the Texas women’s or men’s basketball programs. And that’s only the icing slathered atop a surreal Thursday night 21 years in the making for Collier, the 6-5 center and new face of the Dallas Wings following three superb and at times awe-inspiring seasons as a Longhorn.
“It’s still surreal, you know, I still can’t put into words this feeling,” Collier said Thursday night. “I was 2 years old in that picture laying on the basketball, and I’ve loved basketball ever since. I feel like this right here, it’s just a testament to all of my hard work and all that I’ve worked for. It’s just amazing as a basketball player to see what you’ve been working for for so long to come true.”
Though Dallas owned the first two slots in this year’s draft, there was little internal debate over which player merited that honor. A homegrown star from Mont Belvieu who evolved into the nexus of first-year Texas coach Vic Schaefer’s attack, Collier was the clearcut choice even over the likes of 6-5 Finnish pro Awak Kuier, Arizona’s diminutive assassin Aari McDonald and Rutgers’ stat-stuffer Arella Guirantes.
Collier averaged a respectable 13.1 points on 43.2 percent shooting, 10.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks as a sophomore, teasing superstar potential on a veteran-heavy roster. But there was an exodus of both coaches and players after the 2019-20 season, ex-coach Karen Aston’s last, creating a power vacuum the junior center yearned to fill.
Last season, Collier posted huge numbers despite heavy defensive pressure.
Collier averaged 19.0 points on 51.1 percent shooting, 11.3 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks to help lead Texas to only its third Elite Eight
appearance since 1990. She also tied for second with 19 double-doubles and ranked sixth in made free throws (153) among Division I players while flashing range with 15 made 3-pointers.
“Charli is such a tremendous player and a difference-maker,” Schaefer said last month. “She commands everybody’s double; she gets no single looks. And that’s been my biggest complaint all year. That kid’s doing it with double and triple teams. Her numbers are better than everybody’s just about.
“I think she’s worked really hard. I don’t think anybody can ever question how hard the kid works. She’s done it again, night in and night out against you really good players and really good coaching.”
Collier’s game represents the ongoing blending of old and new schools.
The long-range jumper still needs some fine-tuning, but Collier looks comfortable around the arc and has the tools to develop a devastating face-up game. She’s also a paint-clearing nightmare on the glass, especially on offense (4.4 rebounds per game last season). And trying to go one-on-one in the post with the sinewy center usually ends in disaster for whatever luckless defender draws that assignment.
All that production and promise explains why the All-American, AllBig 12 and Lisa Leslie Award finalist became the WNBA’s 26th No. 1 overall pick Thursday night. Collier is also just the third underclassmen selected first.
“I feel like you can definitely see me as a stretch 5, somebody that could put the ball on the floor, somebody that can shoot the midrange, be in the post,” Collier said. “You know, just a versatile basketball player.”
Collier will now play her home games at College Park Center in Arlington, about 200 miles north of the Erwin Center and 290 miles outside of high school alma mater Barbers Hill.
She’ll be tasked with dragging Dallas out from the Western Conference cellar after two straight last-place finishes, performances that spurred the franchise to fire coach Brian Agler and hire Las Vegas assistant Vickie Johnson. The franchise last won a playoff series in 2009, when it still resided in Detroit, and hasn’t finished above .500 since 2015, its last campaign in Tulsa.
Dallas believes Collier can help end that stretch of futility once she trades in burnt orange for lime green and blue. And after what she achieved last season, there’s little reason to doubt this WNBA dream will end anytime soon.
“I’m confident and know my work is paying off,” Collier said. “I was a little girl wanting this all my life, so this is amazing. I’m blessed.”