Section B · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, March 2, 1999
Nick Collison stretches out in the basement while watching game tapes before the district playoff game.
For highly-touted Iowa recruit, stardom comes with the territory but doesn't go to his head
Story by Mike Harrity • Photos by Augustus Anthony Piazza
Nick Collision concentrates while boxing out his opponent.
The muffled sound of rapper Busta Rhymes' Dangerous fills the Iowa Falls High School gymnasium as the bar
ketball team goes through warm-up drills less than an hour before tipoff last Wednesday night.
While his teammates assemble in two lines — some going to the basket for a layup, others pulling jumpers — Nick Collison prepares to sign his name.
A middle-aged man has just nudged his twin daughters toward Collison, who is standing at half court. The twins' outstretched right hands, clutching the photocopied rosters handed out at the door, barely reach past the knees of the 6-foot-9 Collison.
Collison's mom, Judy, complete with a photo button of her son dribbling up court attached to her shirt, is standing near the top of the bleachers, having already laid out a few coats to save seats for family and friends. About a third of the town's 6,000 people will pack the gym on this night — some to see the No.1 team in Class AA, most to see Collison, the team's best player and one of the top high school players in the country.
Collison takes the pen, signs the rosters, pats each girl on the head, grips a basketball, jokes a visualized defender and takes a 15-foot jump shot. Swish.
As Collison continues warming up, three photographers standing behind the basket follow his every move. Dads point him out to their sons.
This fall, when the college basketball season begins, the scene will be different for Collison. The hoopla will only be magnified.
Collison, who has signed a letter of intent with Kansas, will play his first game in Allen Fieldhouse. Judy and the rest of the Collison family will be secure in seats behind the bench.
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Nick Collison hangs from the rim after slam dunking two of his 24 total points in Wednesday night's Iowa Class AA District Tournament game.
For the next hour and a half, though, the only thing on Collison's mind is the Iowa Class AA District Tournament game against the Gilbert Tigers.
Eyes are fixed on Collison as he listens to the closing instructions from his dad, David, who is the Iowa Falls coach. Once again, the court is the stage, and Collison is the leading man.
"All the attention and stuff is a little crazy," Collison, 18, says later. "But I guess I'm getting used to it."
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Nick Collison doesn't believe the hype. This may be surprising, considering the seemingly endless attention he has received during the past two years. His tone remains calm and controlled when discussing a typical dav last spring.
"Yeah, Tubby called here," Collison says. "He was cool, but I really wasn't into what they're doing." Tubby is Tubby Smith, Kentucky's coach, who won a national championship last year.
The college basketball scene's microscope tight ened its focus soon after the end of Collison's sophomore year in 1996. That's when the transformation began from the tall, skinny kid — 6 foot-7, 200 pounds — Collison now laughs at when watching a high highlight tape to the 6 foot-9, 225 man he is now. During this time, the wave
of imminent basketball stardom has taken him to play in places like the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas and has delivered him to national prominence.
Collison was one of 20 players selected to play in this year's McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Game scheduled March 24 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa
Still, he doesn't buy into it. Collison often types his name into Internet search sites and sees what comes up. He mentions, but doesn't talk much, about the various Kansas Jayhawk's fan sites, where people christen him as the struggling team's savior. He doesn't talk much about how Bob Gibbons, one of the most prominent college basketball recruiting experts in the nation, rates him as the country's second-best high school player in the country.
Collison is quicker to talk about what he saw on his computer just a couple of days ago when he typed in his name. "One of those recruiting services had me ranked something like the 413th player in the country," Collison says. "If that doesn't wake you up, man. That's why I don't take too much from stuff like that. I just keep working."
Mike Lindeman, a teammate and good
Mike Lindeman friend of Collison, sees no change in his childhood friend.
"He could be real cky about it, but he's just one of us," said Lindeman, whose sister Joie is the girlfriend of former Kansas basketball player Raef LaFrentz. "He works harder than almost anyone I know."
Gail Knights, a barber in downtown Iowa Falls.
Nick Collison plays Connect Four with his younger brother Michael Collison.
"Nick'll be sitting over there in the corner, reading a paper or something, and guys will come in asking. 'What do you know about this Collison kid? Is he any good?'" Knights said "And Nick will just keep reading, not even look up. And I'll say, 'There he is over there, ask him.' He hasn't let any of it to go his head."
Collision liked Kansas as soon as Williams began recruiting him last March. Collison was
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His barber said the hype hasn't changed Collison.
has been cutting Collison's hair since the family moved there after Collision finished seventh grade. Collison rarely talks much about his basketball exploits while getting a close trim. Except for a couple of weeks ago, when he told his barber of more than five years that he really needed a good hair cut because, after all, he had to take a photo for the McDonald's game program. "I said to him, 'And what, all the others weren't that good?' Knights said.
It's 7 p.m. last Wednesday, right before tipoff, and everyone in the gym is standing. Some remove their hats. The Iowa Falls team assembles in front of its bench, ready for the National Anthem to be sung. Soon after the choir group begins, Nick Collision accidentally drags his right foot. The screech from his sole rubbing the polished hardwood floor drowns out the choir for the longest instant. A "Shhhhhh" is heard from the crowd. Even now, Collision is the center of attention. His grandfather, Arden, sitting a couple of rows in front of Judy, can't see over the mob of standing fans as the referees prepare to
toss the opening tip. "I come to watch Nick, and I can't see see the court because of all these people." Arden Collison says. "I guess I'll just see him on the news later."
drawn to the laid-back demeanor of Williams and his staff.
"Coach Williams is down to earth," Collison said. "You just feel comfortable with him. Like whenever I go down there, we'll just sit in his office and watch football and talk and stuff like that."
On Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's visit to the Collison home, he flashed his two national championship rings. It still wasn't enough for Collison.
Duke started recruiting Collison late in the process, last July. He still considered becoming a Blue Devil because "Well, they're Duke," Collison said. "Both Kansas and Duke just play basketball — man-to-man defense, motion offense. I think that's the kind of system I would do well in. They're both national programs and are going to be traveling all over and playing big games. I want that."
"Coach K can get you psyched up about stuff, but Duke is just a little different than what I'm used to," he said. "Really, if Duke never would have started recruiting me, it would have been Kansas without a doubt. I like Lawrence a lot, and I just feel comfortable there." On Collison's September visit, he hung out with
some of the Kansas basketball players. He went with Ryan Robertson, Jeff Boschee and Eric Chenwolty to MTV's LoveLine show at the Lied Center. The fun he had going out with his future teammates made his decision to come to Kansas all the easier.
"The players are real cool, I get along with all of the funniest guys I've ever met. They're fun to hang out with, and I'm looking forward to it this fall."
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The game against Gilbert is well in hand as the remaining seconds of the first quarter fall off the game clock. Gilbert employs a suffocating defensive tactic on Collison, limiting his offensive game. When Collision posts up a defender, an opposing guard stands facing Collison, with his arms held high, shadowing his every move, attempting to shield Collision from the ball. It doesn't work long. Iowa Falls jumps out to a 19-5 lead on nearly perfect perimeter shooting, then Collision scores his first basket. Iowa Falls point guard Mike Roefs drives, then bounces a pass to Collision, who is standing alone under the basket. Collision elevates, holding the ball with two hands that are now at least a half of a foot above the rim, and drops the ball through.
Collison's cat-like quickness around the basket allows him to score at will when he's not draped by two and three defenders. And defense, yeah, he can do that too. About midway
through the second quarter, Collision stands along the lane, anticipating the flow of the Gilbert offense. A Gilbert player is free in the corner, beyond the three-point line. Collision sees this, and with one long stride, leaps toward the shooter. He shoots. Collision stakes the ball into the stands. Just one of Collision's numerous blocks on the night, Iowa Falls, 21-0 this season, wins by an average score of 81-39. Collision averages 23 points and 12 rebounds a game, though he says, "I should be getting more." All this despite only playing an average of about 22 of the game's 32 total minutes. With 5-37 remaining in the game, Collision sits down. He's through for the night. He finishes with 24 points and eighbors. Iowa Falls wins 82-46.
After the game, there's a brief ceremony on the court honoring the McDonald's game selection. Cookies and punch await in the student center outside the gym doors while two TVs roll the ESPN clip of Collison making the All-American team. When the McDonald's representatives are done with the presentation of a basketball and commemorative T-shirts, they toss mini basketball into the crowd. This is the most excited Nick's 8-year-old brother Michael has been all night. Michael Collison doesn't enjoy his brother's games. "I don't really like them, so when I get bored I tell my mom and sometimes she gives me money to go buy candy," he says. "So that's about the best part."
The people from McDonald's don't throw a mini basketball Michael Collison's way. Michael is disappointed.
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He's the only one.
Collision, still in disbelief, is watching a tape of a game played a few weeks ago when an opposing player yanked his shorts down and subsequently ran off the court cheering.
"He had his hands on my waist when I got the ball," Collison said. "Then I faked, and he just pulled them down. I was just like, what the hell are you doing?"
Local television stations made the clip a common occurrence on the evening news, and friends of the Collison's began calling from Denver. Houston and South Dakota.
"They all said they had seen it on CNN," Collison said. "That's pretty crazy to be on CNN for something like that."
Along with his mom and dad, Collision went to the Kansas game against Iowa State Sunday in Ames, Iowa, which is a 45-minute drive from their home. After witnessing the 52-50 Kansas loss, Collison said, "That won't happen next year."
Collison doesn't expect losses or anyone pulling down his shorts in any game he's playing for Kansas in the coming years.
And when asked if he's thought about running through the rain shower of cheers that first time at Allen Fieldhouse, Collision becomes silent. Then he takes a door breath.
Then he takes a deep breath.
"That will be a rush," he says. "All the great people that have played there. The crowd atmosphere. I've never played in front of a crowd that big before. I've thought about it a lot. But there's going to be nothing like actually doing it."
Edited bv Jodi Smith
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Nick Collison autographs a basketball for a young