TAMPA, JUNE 19, 2020 – University of South Florida men’s basketball guard David Collins will remain with the Bulls for his senior season in 2020-21.
Collins (Youngstown, Ohio) entered the NBA Draft in April and participated in the evaluation process that allowed him to receive feedback from teams.
“Going through the NBA Draft process has been a great learning experience for me, and I want to thank all the teams who gave me feedback and reached out to me,” Collins said. “After speaking with my family and my coaches, I have decided to remain at USF for my senior season. I love the University of South Florida and I know we are building something special here. We’ve built a program that has high expectations and there are so many things we have yet to accomplish, and I can’t wait to get back to work with my teammates later this summer.”
A mainstay in the USF backcourt since arriving on campus in 2017, Collins has led USF in scoring in each of the past two seasons and became the 20th player in school history to score 1,000 career points during the 2019-20 campaign. He enters his senior season needing 734 points to become just the third player in school history, and first in the American Athletic Conference, to score 2,000 career points.
Collins, a two-time AAC All-Conference selection, already ranks third all-time at USF with 428 career frees throw made and will surpass Charlie Bradley for the school record with only 32 more. In addition, Collins needs 10 more makes to become the all-time leader in The American.
On defense, Collins ranks seventh all-time at USF with 157 career steals and needs 43 more thefts to become just the third player in school history with 200 steals.
“David established himself as an impact player very quickly in his career and will go down as one of the best players in USF and American Athletic Conference history,” USF head coach Brian Gregory said. “David definitely possesses the skillset to play at the next level, and we encouraged him to pursue his professional career by taking part in the NBA draft process in order to receive feedback from league personnel. Although the feedback was very positive, David decided to remain at USF to lead our team next season, and his impending graduation next May took precedent and will be a driving force for him.”
With Collins back in the lineup, USF brings back four starters to go along with the highly-anticipated return of 2019 AAC Freshman of the Year Alexis Yetna (Paris), who missed all of last season with a knee injury.
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About USF Men’s Basketball
The USF men’s basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory. On March 22, 2017, Gregory was introduced as the 10th head coach in program history. He previously led programs at Georgia Tech (2011-16) and Dayton (2003-11). Gregory spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach under Michigan State’s Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo and helped the Spartans win the 2000 NCAA National Championship. Gregory owns nearly 300 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship. In his second season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to the best win turnaround in the NCAA, the most single-season wins in school history and the 2019 College Basketball Invitational championship.
USF has retired three numbers in its 47-year history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids, appeared in the NIT eight times and won the 2019 College Basketball Invitational.
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