Back in the driver’s seat

HEALTHY AGAIN, COLLINS LOOKING UPWARD

(6/6/07)

Photo: Steve Woltmann/UIC Athletics In late December and early January, there were serious doubts that Jimmy Collins would be coaching on the UIC sideline.

On an early June evening, Jimmy Collins is driving Southbound of the Dan Ryan Expressway after a good, long day at his job – his passion – as the head men’s basketball coach of the UIC Flames.

Just five months earlier, Collins didn’t know whether he had coached his last basketball game, sitting in a bed preparing for surgery on his abdomen. Would his life be in danger even after his surgery?

In an attempt to calm himself, Collins turned to two things that were near to his heart – his focus and his faith.

“I was nervous,” Collins said on his feelings before the Jan. 4 procedure. “I had to take it like an approach to a tough game. I had to be focused and mentally prepared for the challenge. I tried to sidetrack my thoughts. I remember saying a lot of prayers.”

Collins, the 59-year-old coach, was about to undergo a minimally-invasive procedure to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The balloon that had formed in his abdomen was similar to a ticking time bomb, which could have exploded at any moment.

The surgery, performed by Dr. Henry Baraniewski, lasted close to half a day, including anesthesia.

As Collins began to awaken, he slowly became aware of his surroundings.

“I was semi-conscious, but I couldn’t move because my hands had several tubes in them,” Collins said. “Then I had a tube down my throat and had another one on the side of my neck.”

Collins didn’t leave his bed for the next 24 to 48 hours, but a potential life-threatening problem had been aborted.

WARNING SIGNS

It had been a normal basketball season with a few small bumps in the road. Collins was used to the grind of preparing for games and dealing with the personalities of young players that come with college basketball.

In fact, the Flames were doing OK for themselves after an 86-80 victory over Akron at the Pavilion on Dec. 16. Collins was in pretty good spirits following the game, wishing reporters at the postgame press conference an early Merry Christmas.

Then the week from hell came for UIC. Two grueling road games – one in Oxford, Miss. against Mississippi of the SEC and then the other two days later in Philadelphia against Ivy League power Penn – awaited the Flames.

Even before the two-game mid-December road swing, Collins had begun to feel some discomfort.

“I guess it was around the beginning of December, my weight loss had become noticeable, several people mentioned it,” said Collins, naming his wife, Hettie, and Othyus Jeffers as people who noticed. “At that time I had lost a few pounds, but it wasn’t so dramatic that it bothered me. As we got closer to that road trip, I began to feel a lot of exhaustion.”

Collins pinpoints a moment in Oxford where he started to feel incredibly tired and weak as the beginning of the firestorm. He and Bryant Lowe, the Flames’ director of basketball operations, took a walk from the team hotel to a Wal-Mart.

“We walked from the hotel to a Wal-Mart, which was about maybe a mile from the hotel,” Collins explained. “Coming back I really, really felt exhausted. I was used to power-walking five miles a day, and a one-mile walk – without the eight-pound weights – shouldn’t have exhausted me like that. I got back to the hotel and I sat on the bed.”

Collins blacked out on his bed for a short time: “Then the next thing I remember was waking up. It wasn’t that long, but it was an unusual thing for me.”

The coach didn’t skip a beat, however, as casual observers never would have known anything was wrong. The coach declined to tell many people that he was beginning to suffer.

“I don’t know, we as macho individuals … I didn’t even tell [team trainer] Mike Gilmartin about it,” Collins said.

Then during the Flames’ game against the Rebels – a 77-64 loss, Collins encountered another scare.

“I thought it was blood pressure or the game itself that stressed me out to the point that I had a temporary blackout [on the bench],” Collins said. “I didn’t say a lot about it. I kept it to myself, but I then kept getting tired, having these little ‘flashes.’ At that time I knew I had to get an examination. It started to get a little more frequent and I guess it started to worry me a little bit more, because nothing like that ever happened to me.”

The foundation was just beginning to crack for the Flames, who had to travel to Philadelphia for another grueling game.

During the road trip, walk-on Luis Martinez claimed, according to a federal lawsuit filed in January, that assistant coach Lynn Mitchem allegedly approached him in the locker room and touched him inappropriately and spoke to him with sexual overtones.

A small group of players also missed curfew prior to UIC’s game at Penn, including guards T.J. Gray and D.J. Smedley. Gray was disciplined, sitting out the entire game against the Quakers. Smedley not only played, but actually started, because the game was being played in his hometown and Collins didn’t want to deny Smedley that opportunity for personal reasons.

With everything that has happening around him, to go along with his health issues, Collins began to feel consumed by stress. During the Penn game, Collins suffered another blackout.

“By that time, I told my wife what was happening,” Collins said. “I didn’t know [at that point] that I was going to take a leave of absence. I did know I was going to take a physical.”

After the game, a 90-78 loss, Collins got into a quarrel with the players in the locker room.

“It’s not the first time something like that has happened,” he admitted. “During the course of that, I started to feel dizzy again. I was determined not to faint in front of the team. I thought then that it was a little more serious that I’d like to admit.”

On the flight back to Chicago, Collins decided to ask athletic director Jim Schmidt to take a leave of absence for undetermined amount of time. When Collins returned home on Dec. 21, he told Schmidt that he needed to get an examination and distance himself from the team.

“I granted him that, and I told him to take whatever time he needs,” Schmidt told the media on Dec. 22 after UIC’s home game with Illinois State.

Associate head coach Mark Coomes was named the interim coach while Collins was on leave.

A few days later, Collins issued the following statement about his leave: “Directing a college basketball team can be a taxing profession at times and in the last few weeks I have found myself both physically and mentally exhausted. After the game at Penn, I realized that the disposition of myself and the team was causing un-needed stress amongst the team and not allowing my players the best opportunity to succeed.”

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Whoosh! photo Collins would endure a difficult time in preparing for his surgery and for his fight to recover afterward.

Instead of devising a game plan for UIC’s game with Illinois State, Collins went to the University of Illinois Medical Center for an examination by his physician, Dr. Robert Rosman, MD.

Rosman and a host of doctors performed a battery of tests that lasted over 12 hours. It was during the course of the grueling examinations that Collins was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

During the course of his day at the hospital, Collins was sent to ER – not exactly a joyous occasion just days before Christmas.

“I was in ER for awhile. This thing was visible. I put my hand [on my abdomen] and I could see it [pulsating],” Collins explained. After some MRIs and CAT-scans, the doctors said it actually leaked, but because I was in pretty good shape, my natural clotting system had clotted it and momentarily held it up.

“The longer the process took, the more nervous I got. The more tests I had … and the puzzled looks he was giving me began to worry me.”

Then Collins heard some words and saw an image that figuratively gave him chills.

“It had ballooned,” he said. “They showed me a picture. When [Baraniewski] starts talking like this, I’m ready for whatever they want to do. By 8:30 at night, the doctors had informed me of how serious my condition was and that I was going to need surgery. They told me that if it burst, I could die. Then I said, ‘Let’s get [the surgery] done.’ ”

Rosman told Collins that the surgery could wait until after the holidays as long as the coach “didn’t do anything strenuous and stayed relaxed.”

After a few days at home, Collins was admitted to the hospital just after the New Year to prepare for the surgery.

Collins was worried, but he found strength in his faith and string support from his family.

“My religion and my family are what I hinge everything on,” Collins said. “I just believe that through Christ all things are possible. If you have your family and your health then you have everything.”

BOUNCING BACK

With his team playing Wright State 300 miles away in Dayton, Collins pulled through his surgery on Jan. 4 and began his slow road to recovery.

Despite his frailty, Collins still wanted to be on the pulse of the team’s situation. He spoke to Coomes over the phone nearly every day for the first week or so after surgery.

After a short while, Collins relented and let Coomes handle the reins of the team: “I decided to tell him, ‘Handle the way you want to handle it.’ I did have confidence in him as a coach.”

Whoosh! photo Associate head coach Mark Coomes (left) managed the hot seat while Collins was recovering.

“If you’re not there everyday, you know what plays to run, but you don’t know the flavor or the personalities of the guys.”

Back in his South Suburban residence, Collins struggled for some time – physically and mentally.

“Once I got home, I was confined to my bedroom because going up and down the stairs at my house was very challenging,” he said. “Just going to the restroom was a challenge. As the days went on I started to feel better.”

Collins trusted in his faith, family and friends to help him pull through.

“During my convalescing stage, I didn’t talk to a lot of people [at UIC],” Collins said. “I spoke with Jim Schmidt and Mark Coomes regularly. I talked to (administrative assistant) Carina [Alcantar] more than anybody.”

Collins added that he spoke to players like Jeremy Buttell, Josh Mayo, Robert Bush, Mayo’s father and Spencer Stewart’s father. Former players and associates from both UIC and Illinois called the coach to pick him up. “Guys like Martell [Bailey], Ced [Banks], Armond Williams, Justin Bowen, Kendall Gill, Steve Bardo, Ryan Baker, Elliott Poole and Cory Little.”

Just when things were beginning to look up for Collins, his younger brother, Maurice, 50, died in St. Louis due to a massive heart attack in February.

Collins was still physically weak, so another brother, Early, drove him down to see him in the hospital.

“I got in the back of Early’s Cadillac and laid in there and I was comfortable,” Collins said. “We got to the hospital and we got to see him breathing. He wasn’t coherent. We had a chance to see him the last half-hour of his life.”

After Collins returned to Chicago, he continued to follow the team from a distance. He kept tabs on the Flames through the newspaper and radio. He said that there were times he wasn’t going to pay attention, but he admitted “that was a lie.”

“I thought when I initially left, they kind of fell apart even though they won those two big games (Butler and Loyola),” Collins said. “After that, I think, mentally, they were in the same book, but weren’t on the same page.”

In the days and weeks following Collins’ leave, seniors Kevin Bond and D.J. Smedley and Martinez quit the team. Walk-on guard Greg Zimny left the squad, came back, and then left again. Junior guard Karl White was declared academically ineligible and senior forward Danijel Zoric was suspended indefinitely for whacking Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Mike Schachtner in the back of the head.

Collins did notice the Flames’ improvement down the stretch when the team won five of its last seven, including a four-game winning streak.

“I took a little bit of time to heal,” Collins said. “When they started to mend at the end of the season, I thought they played better.”

WRESTLING WITH A DECISION

Through his predicament, Collins wrestled with serious doubts about returning to coaching. He had quarreled with the team in December before his leave began and his health problems became public knowledge. He was still trying to regain physical strength.

With the uncertainty looming over his head, Collins battled some depression during his recovery period.

“It was a combination of a lot of things,” Collins said. “Obviously, I was very, very sick and I didn’t know if I was going to fully recover, if I was physically able to go back to coaching. With all of the things that happened between the team and me and my thoughts during that time, I didn’t know mentally if I wanted to go back. I didn’t know if I wanted to deal with the different personalities and the mood swings of a team. I didn’t know if I wanted to deal with that at the time. Do I take the time to smell the roses a bit?”

Collins also said that he thought some of his players thought he had quit on the team.

“I think a lot of those guys thought that I had left them,” Collins said. “After that it was documented that I was in the hospital, I (still) don’t think they understood. It added to my depression. I didn’t just desert them.

“The last thing they remember in terms of the contact was that falling out in the locker room [in Philadelphia]. Physically, I had no strength. I just felt beat down and I was mentally beat down. Had I been physically stronger, I would have been better mentally. The situations with me and the team would have been remedied the next day. I wasn’t even able to come back into the locker room.”

Over time, Collins’ condition improved and he finally made a decision to return to the one thing that had dominated his life for the past 25 years – the coaching profession.

“There was a question (whether I’d come back),” Collins said in April. “Now that I getting my health back, my mental strength is coming back. That’s what I’ve been doing all my life. What do I do now? Go and learn to fly a jet?”

In recent weeks, Collins has been meeting with players and has hit the recruiting trail. His enthusiasm has rebounded along with his health.

“I’m feeling as good as I have since I came back,” said Collins on Monday evening as he drove home. “I’m very excited about what we have here.”

FOOTNOTES

Collins on the D.J. Smedley situation in Philadelphia: “D.J. and couple of other guys missed curfew. But D.J. played in the game. My feelings got involved in something that happened a long time ago with me. When I was playing for the Bulls, the Chamber of Commerce of Las Cruces arranged for us to play an exhibition game against Cincinnati. One of my teammates, Sam Lacy was on Cincinnati’s team and also Nate Archibald, who was from UTEP (35 miles from Las Cruces). Dick Motta didn’t put me in the game, but Sam and Nate did play. I can remember the fans going crazy and so forth. As we walked off that floor, some of those fans wanted to kill [Motta] for not playing me. It was my first year out; I had been an All-American and played four years down there. If [Motta] put me in the game for just one minute, it would have satisfied a lot of people. As we walked off the floor, fans started throwing things [at Motta] and he hugged me. He figured if he was close to me, he’d got out of there OK. It stuck with me even today. I felt like I didn’t want put a young man through what I went through in his hometown. In the long run, some of the players thought that he should have been punished too, but I don’t think they knew my reasons for it.”

Collins on which defection hurt the most: “All of those things were very, very troublesome. The thing that really bothered me more than anything was that Kevin Bond before I had a chance to sit down and talk with him. He’ll probably never know it. In my mind, Kevin was probably more like me than any of the other players.

“I had encouraged Kevin to come up to my office and he and I would talk about what I expect from him, but it didn’t happen because I got sick. He probably didn’t think that anything was going change. The reason I say that he’s a lot like me is because when his playing time began to diminish, his feelings were not only hurt, but he thought our relationship would mirror that. I can see a much better player in Kevin than what Kevin was giving. His departure hurt me more than any of them.”

Collins on the situations (Lynn Mitchem, players leaving) that occurred last season and how it affected him and could affect the program in the future: “This is my program. Anything that affects this program in a negative fashion is very stressful. You try very hard to keep things positive, but when things started to snowball in negative fashion, it became very stressful.

“Recruiting can be a dirty business. A coach can tell a prospect something negative about me or my program to get that kid into his program. We have some gray areas right now. I think it will probably affect us for the next couple of years. That’s the nature of the beast.”

FLAMES’ PERSONNEL UPDATE

Whoosh! photo If all goes according to plan, Othyus Jeffers (left) and Robert Bush will be key seniors on the 2007-08 UIC Flames squad.

Collins said Monday that the 2007-08 roster is pretty much set and that it will likely include Othyus Jeffers, who was a First-Team All-Horizon League selection last season. Collins could not answer with 100 percent certainty that Jeffers will return.

“He said that he was coming back … but whatever happens is certainly up to Othyus,” Collins said, adding that Jeffers has been at the Flames Athletic Center, working out and practicing his game.

Collins said that Jeffers in recovering well from the gunshot wound on his upper left thigh that he suffered on April 20 while protecting his sister from an abusive boyfriend.

“He’s a strong young man,” Collins said. “I anticipate, based on what I’m hearing, that he’s going to have a full recovery.”

Collins said that he’s very excited about the rest of the roster coming back plus the five newcomers that are scheduled to debut this season. The two returning starters, other than Jeffers, are junior center Scott VanderMeer and junior guard Josh Mayo. Other key returnees are senior swingman Robert Bush and sophomore point guard Spencer Stewart, both of whom were part-time starters last season.

“Those guys are really working hard,” Collins said. “I have asked them to take some leadership role, take some pride in your team. Meet with yourselves once a week and then meet with me once a week. We’ll talk about progress, what we need to make core players better. Scott has made the guys are taking care of their weights and conditioning. Mayo has done a very good job with the guys keeping the locker room in order.”

“Last year’s experiences have done a lot to mature some of the younger players.”

Collins said that Bush could be on the verge of a breakout final season at UIC.

“Robert should be my best player,” Collins said. “Everything that he possesses – he’s strong, he’s athletic, he shoots the ball well, he can drive and jumps out of the gym. On some days, you think, ‘What a Superman!’ If he wanted to be Superman, he could be.”

One player who will not be back is guard T.J. Gray. Collins said Gray has met his bachelor’s degree requirements and would have to go to graduate school if he wanted to return. Gray was UIC’s best outside shooting threat and averaged 11.1 points per game – third on the team. He tied the UIC single-season record for threes with 90 (Cedrick Banks, 2003-04).

Collins also said that guard Karl White will return for his senior season. White was declared academically ineligible in January.

“He’s back on track,” Collins said. “Karl had a heck of a spring. He pulled a couple of A’s. He buckled in and got serious. He’s even showing some leadership”

If Jeffers does return for sure, the 13 scholarship players would break down like this: junior forward Billy Baptist, freshman swingman Tori Boyd, Bush, sophomore forward Jeremy Buttell, senior forward Jermaine Dailey, sophomore forward Jovan Ignjatovic, Jeffers, freshman guard Robert Kreps, Mayo, freshman forward Byron Pickens, Stewart, VanderMeer, and White to go along with walk-on senior Ebenezer Noonoo.

COLLINS’ TAKE ON THE NEWCOMERS

Whoosh! photo Texas Tech transfer Jeremy Buttell will provide the Flames with some size and ability right away.

Baptist: “I liken Billy to Armond Williams, but he can shoot it better. He’s not as strong as Armond, but he’s got a nose for the ball.”

Boyd: “Tori’s upside is tremendous. You’re talking about 6-5, 6-6, athletic, who runs and jumps. One-on-one, he’s lethal. He has to get stronger, but he’s four, five steps ahead of most freshmen.”

Buttell: “I think that Jeremy has developed a very good outside jump shot. I want him to be a little bit more versatile, in that he’s a big, strong kid. He’s relentless – he’s going to dive on the floor, he’s going to take charges. I want him to concentrate a little bit more on his inside game.”

Kreps: “Robo is just the type of athlete that I’ve envisioned representing this university and this basketball program. He’s tough, hard-nosed, a smart young man. He’s a staunch competitor. He never stops to rest. Even when he was on the football team, he would leave football practice and go to basketball practice. He’s practicing hard 2-3 hours everyday right now.”

Pickens: “Byron is very athletic. He’s similar to Justin Bowen, but he’s more of a slasher than Justin and he’s always around the ball when it comes to rebounding. Byron does need to put on some more bulk.”

DONNELLY LEAVES

Assistant coach Dave Donnelly has left UIC to take an assistant coaching position at Eastern Michigan of the MAC. Donnelly spent nine years in the Flames’ program, starting out as a graduate assistant and ascending to become a valued full-time assistant to Collins.

Whoosh! photo Former Flames assistant coach Dave Donnelly (left, talking with Central Michigan assistant Keith Noftz) will take his talents to Eastern Michigan.

Donnelly was very influential in UIC’s recruiting over the past several years, helping to make contacts in the Midwest, as well as, nationally. He was also the coach with the most influence in scheduling and worked with athletic director Jim Schmidt on crafting challenging slates for the Flames.

“We’ll definitely miss him,” Collins said.

Donnelly will take his tireless work ethic to the Eagles and their head coach Charles Ramsey.

With Donnelly’s departure, the Flames are now short two assistants as Lynn Mitchem remains on administrative leave.

Collins said the University has opened a search for Donnelly’s replacement.

“I hope to have somebody in place before the July recruiting period,” Collins said. “There are a lot things involved in being an assistant coach. The main things are recruiting and preparation. If we’re going to move forward, we’ve got to have the bodies to move forward with. Needless to say, right now, we’re thin.

Collins is “very limited” to what he can say about Mitchem’s status due to pending litigation. As for his possible return, Collins said: “I cannot answer that with any certainty.”