The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Collier ready to lead Women's Basketball
07.13.2020 | Women's Basketball
The 6-foot-5 center is poised to be one of the nation's best post players.
Charli Collier knew it was time to use her voice.
The University of Texas' 6-foot-5 sophomore center had largely spent her freshman season watching, listening and learning.
Collier started each of her first eight games in her second year on the Forty Acres and had logged six double-doubles during that span.
Still, that day in Knoxville, many may not have expected the Longhorns to win. Texas entered the game with a 4-4 record after going 1-2 in a Thanksgiving trip to the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Honolulu. Tennessee was 7-0 and ranked No. 17 in the country.
But Collier knew her team was more than capable of leaving Thompson-Boling Arena with a victory. She brought down only six rebounds and scored a modest four points that day, but Collier powered the victory on Rocky Top.
"That Tennessee game, definitely on the bus and before the game, I was hyping my team up saying that we were going to beat them," Collier said. "I didn't have a good game, but I feel like my voice really did fuel us. That's all part of being a leader. You don't always have to play well, but you have to get your teammates up to that level."
From that point, Collier has established herself as a vocal leader on the Texas squad, a role that has continued to evolve.
"I'm an emotional player and I'll yell at times. I'll get really into the game," Collier said. "I need to continue to focus on being more vocal as a leader. I feel like I lead by example well, but I need to talk more."
She would go on to have a sophomore campaign that saw her earn First-Team All-Big 12 Conference honors. Collier became one of just four players in program history to finish a season averaging a points-rebounds double-double with 13.1 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game. She ranked 16th nationally in double-doubles with 16 and was 20th in the NCAA in rebounds per game. Collier was a top-10 finalist for the Lisa Leslie Award, which recognizes the nation's top center.
On that December Sunday in Knoxville, Collier started down the path that has led her to enter her junior season as one of the top post players in the country.
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Collier was undoubtedly the best player on her high school team.
Prospects Nation and the Blue Star Report tabbed her as the nation's top player in the Class of 2018. She was a McDonald's All-American and also selected to participate in the Jordan Brand Classic. USA Today named her a First-Team All-American in 2018.
Collier scored more than 3,500 points and brought down more than 1,400 rebounds at Barbers Hill High School in the greater Houston area. She was one of the most sought after prospects in the nation, drawing attention from all of the top programs.
It would have been easy for Collier to get caught up in the attention and the accolades. But that's not who she is.
Despite her elite abilities, the team-first Collier has always been humble. Whatever she needs to do to help her squad earn the victory is her focus.
"I remember telling my team in high school, 'Whatever you can contribute helps us,'" Collier said. "I could score 40 points, but if the other team scored 40 points, we had to have other players contribute. We had a really good three-point shooter on my high school team and I remember saying 'If you can get two or three of those a game, we're going to win.' We were going to win games because WE were working hard."
Collier's leadership of her team paid off in her junior season, as her team posted a 34-5 record and advanced to the UIL Class 5A state semifinals. She was named to the 2017 Class 5A State All-Tournament Team and was a nominee for the Gatorade Player of the Year Award.
Those experiences at Barbers Hill laid the foundation for Collier to set the tone for the Longhorns entering the 2020-21 campaign.
"Me becoming a leader definitely came from high school," Collier said. "I feel like I pushed my teammates to work harder because they saw how I hard I worked. I encouraged them to compete with me. Everyone had to contribute and have confidence. We went to state in high school with that team. They had confidence."
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External expectations loomed large for Collier as she began her career in the Burnt Orange, but the adjustment to the college game – specifically the speed - was more difficult than she expected.
"It was just so fast," said Collier, who averaged nearly three fouls per game over her first 12 collegiate contests. "Transitioning to the pace of the college game, I would always be late. I was late on defense and I would foul a lot. I was good coming out of high school, so there were just a lot of expectations for me. Personally, I'm hard on myself because I know how good I can be."
There were frustrations for Collier as a freshman. She played in 31 of her team's 33 games, but averaged just 14 minutes per game. As much as Collier desired to play a larger role, she understood and appreciated the process.
"When I messed up, I was like 'Dang. It's on me,'" Collier said. "I was starting over – I just had to learn. I was a freshman and these were grown women."
She became a sponge, soaking up as much knowledge as possible from her coaches and teammates.
"My freshman year, I did a lot of watching and listening, on the bench and in practice," Collier said. "That was my role and I was going to do what I had to do. I feel like that helped me mature because I wasn't in the position to be a leader. I feel like a lot of freshmen are afraid to ask questions because it's new. Just ask the older players, 'Hey, what do I do next time?" I asked a lot of questions."
Still, it wasn't the freshman year that Collier had envisioned for herself. She had a decision to make. She could stay the course and work to improve, or she could enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, a vehicle which debuted on October 15, 2018, and has made the process of finding a new school much simpler for student-athletes.
"I didn't play a lot my freshman year and I thought I was going to start," Collier said. "I didn't know. A lot of people quit when they don't get their way and they transfer. My parents always told me to finish out what I started. I just feel like from a young age, it always stuck with me."
Collier went to work and the results of her sophomore season spoke for themselves. She turned in one of the best second-year campaigns in program history, ranking third in rebounds [314] and eighth in blocks [39] among Texas sophomores all-time.
"My confidence really built that freshman summer into my sophomore season," Collier said. "It's not easy to average a double-double. That's consistency. I didn't quit. It was grit more than anything."
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A sophomore year cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed Collier additional time to hone her craft. She's gearing up for a big junior season, where she and her coaches expect her to be one of the top post players in the country.
"Charli wants to be the best post player in the country and she should," said associate head coach Johnnie Harris, the 2018 National Assistant Coach of the Year at Mississippi State. "She's skilled enough to do that."
Collier has embraced the process of putting in the work, away from and in addition to practice. She knows it will serve her well as she prepares to become the best at her craft.
"It's important to me to be even more independent outside of practice," Collier said. "Doing things without people having to tell me to do it. That's a maturity thing too. I'm working harder when I'm alone and I haven't always done that. I'm programming myself to think like a pro."
There will undoubtedly be high expectations for Collier entering her junior season. She knows that and embraces them. Rather than feeling a burden of external pressure, Collier envisions what it will look like when the results of her training and preparation come to reality.
"I try to picture myself in the moment," Collier said. "The feeling of all your hard work paying off. The feeling of the fans yelling and screaming. Us winning a championship or cutting down a net. I know there are expectations, but I just see them as something I can achieve and be happy about."
