Jimmy Collins

Who is Jimmy Collins?

James E. "Jimmy" Collins is a retired American basketball player and coach. He was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, where he attended Corcoran High School. Collins was the head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1996 to 2010, becoming the program's all-time winningest coach and leading UIC to its first-ever postseason appearances - NCAA Tournament appearances in 1998, 2002 and 2004, and an NIT showing in 2003.

Prior to his coaching tenure with the UIC Flames, Collins was a longtime assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There he had made a name for himself as one of the nation's best recruiters, helping lure Chicago area players such as eventual NBA veterans like Kendall Gill, Nick Anderson and the bulk of the Fighting Illini's 1989 Final Four team. Collins himself arrived in Champaign as an assistant to coach Lou Henson, who was also his coach as a player at New Mexico State University, where Collins was the captain of an Aggie squad that reached the 1970 Final Four. Collins was then drafted in the First Round of the NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, enjoying a brief professional career with them and with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.