Holy Spirit senior Uudi Collier does whatever it takes to help the Spartans win

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Why are there two U’s in Uumahd? He can’t say for sure. Maybe his mother, Genia Collier, wanted him to stand out; or, at least his name to stand out. That’s Uumahd “Uudi” Collier’s best guess as to how he got his first name. Thing is, the Holy Spirit guard doesn’t stand out. At least, not in the traditional basketball sense. He doesn’t do acrobatic dunks, flying through mid-air with a shaved head and his tongue hanging out, a-la Michael Jordan. He’s not covered in tattoos like Dennis Rodman. He doesn’t do the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. He’s likely to be overlooked on Holy Spirit’s boys basketball roster amid stars such as Junior Saintel, Jordan Taylor, John Middleton and Leon Daniels. He’s not arrogant, not a showman, not the kind of kid who is going to get an opposing crowd in a frenzy by taunting them after a huge basket. There are a lot of things Uudi Collier isn’t. So … what is he? What Collier is, is what a coach loves to have – a senior who not only accepts his role, but thrives in it. The kind of player who comes to work every day, doesn’t complain if he’s not in the starting lineup and is a leader who sets a positive example for the underclassmen. What also makes Collier unique – or Uu-nique, if you will – is that he understands what he can and can’t do on a basketball court. Sounds simple enough. Everybody understands their limitations, right? That’s not always the case, especially in a sport such as basketball, where bravado sometimes gets just as much of a workout as a quality jumpshot. Watching from the bench for a full season after tearing his right Achilles tendon last year boosted Collier’s basketball IQ, and that is evident when Holy Spirit’s Uudi Collier drives in for a layup against Pleasantville at the Ocean City PBA Tipoff Weekend in December. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) he steps on the court this season. Through the first eight games of the season, Collier spent much of his time coming off the bench as the sixth man, with a few starts mixed in. He knows his job is to get the ball in to Saintel, Taylor and John Midi on the low blocks and keep the ball moving around the perimeter until the big guys can get open. But he also is a very good outside shooter and can step up and score if defenses pack it in on Saintel. That was Paulsboro’s game plan at the American Basketball Classic at St. Augustine Prep on Jan. 11, and Collier lit the Red Raiders up for 25 points, including seven 3-pointers. “We have a lot of guys on any night who can go for 20 points. I just feel like on this team I have to be more of a leader and when it’s my time to score I have to execute. But more so I try to set my teammates up because I know I have talented guys around me who can do just as much, if not more, than me,” said Collier, an 18-year-old Pleasantville resident. “I know if I play well it’s a given that the other guys will play well. We feed off their energy with the dunks and the fast breaks. I know if I can set those guys up and we get big plays and everybody is scoring in the flow of the game, we’re not only winning games, we’re having fun.” “He’s always been a smart player, which is why he played for us a sophomore. He always makes good decisions. Those kinds of things also progress over time,” Holy Spirit coach Jamie Gillespie said. “As a sophomore you could see him starting to progress with his basketball IQ. That’s where I think missing a whole year hurts a kid. Not so much physically, but mentally. He’s just now really starting to get back to the point where he as readjusted to the speed of the game.” Gillespie said having a player such as Collier, who really understands what his role is on a nightly basis, is part of the formula for the Spartans’ success. Through the first month of the season, the only team that had beaten Holy Spirit was Philadelphia power Roman Catholic. The Spartans currently are 9-3. “(Limitations are) important for all players to recognize. Good teams have players that understand what their roles are and what their limitations are,” Gillespie said. “That, to me, is what separates good teams from average teams, having guys who understand what their limitations are and ultimately what their roles are within a particular team.” The lost season A player’s junior season usually is a make-or-break season for a high school athlete in any sport. Even if a player has been on varsity since freshman year, the junior season is when most players really make their mark. It is that season when a player normally either establishes himself as a starter or knows he’s going to be spending a lot of time with a clipboard and a Gatorade on the bench. Collier had high hopes for his junior season and was ready to establish himself as the starting point guard. But in the first week of the preseason those hopes came crashing down as Collier tore his Achilles. Done. Season over. Surgery a week later and nearly a year of rehab awaited him. “I tried to cut, like any basketball player has done 1,000 times, and it just gave out on me. I heard something pop. I asked everybody else if they heard it, and nobody heard it. I tried to get up and walk and I couldn’t really walk, so I knew something was bad,” Collier said. “(The doctor) told me I wasn’t going to play the rest of the season and I should prepare to have surgery and just work my hardest to try to get back.” But Collier showed a level of maturity not often seen in a boy his age. He accepted his fate, shrugged it off and just got to work on rehabilitating the injury. Which isn’t all that surprising to those who know him. He’s a “lunch pail” kind of guy. Hit that alarm clock, go to work. “I felt like I was ready to have a big year and then I had to switch focus and just get ready to work hard. Since my freshman year, my coaches have always told me you can’t stress over things you can’t control. So I just had to switch my mindset from getting ready for the season to getting back and getting ready for (this season),” Collier said. Collier filled in at point guard for the injured John Middleton during a game against Paulsboro and scored 25 points, including seven 3-pointers. It wasn’t easy. With all that sitting around for the first three months after the injury, the normal 135-pounder blew up to 195 pounds and had to work hard to get back in shape once he got clearance from his doctor to start doing cardio exercises again. Just 5-foot-10, of course he dreams of what it’s like to throw down a monster dunk the way Saintel can. But at 195 pounds he sure wasn’t going to do it. At least now, at a lithe 145, he can at least dream about it again. “Sometimes I wish I could dunk. At practice the other day I got the rim. I think dunking is just a dream for me,” Collier said with a laugh. But aside from dunking, a year on the bench in street clothes made Collier realize there is a lot to learn about basketball, and he tried to soak it all in. “My (basketball) IQ got higher from being on the bench and watching my team play and seeing the do’s and do not’s, seeing where everybody likes the ball, where they are comfortable at. Now when I’m on the floor, stuff is moving a little bit faster but I see it and I know John (Middleton) likes the ball on the wing, I know Junior likes the ball in the high post and when he gets the ball in the high post he’s real effective in getting to the cup,” Collier said. “So I know where people like the ball and where it needs to be so we can be most effective as a team and just try to set the team up from there.” Mat
uration process No basketball player enters high school thinking, man, I’d love to be the sixth man, or says to the coach “hey, is being a cheerleader on the bench where I will be most effective?” But that year out of uniform gave Collier a new perspective on basketball and he said it made him realize just how important every player on a roster can be, not matter what his role is. “To me, it doesn’t matter who starts. But whoever gets in the game you need to be giving 100 percent all the time to win the game. As long as the team is winning, I’m happy. I can play eight minutes in a game, and if we win I feel like I played the whole game. That’s all that matters is winning the game,” Collier said. “With this team we have a bigger picture of championships. Not just winning the CAL, but a state championship. I know I’m not really the star, but I know I have to find a way to be effective and help this team win. If it’s coming off the bench and giving my all for eight minutes, or if it’s starting and filling in for John and picking up some scoring, or just playing defense and stopping the other team’s best player, whatever my assignment is I just have to give it my all, 110 percent, and be my best.” “He’s a great point guard. His IQ level is high and I can trust him to get me the ball, run the floor and get the ball to the right spots,” Saintel said. Gillespie said that he has really stressed to his players to embrace their roles for the good of the team, and that they have bought in. That’s the kind of chemistry you need to win championships, he said. “We have other seniors who at one point were starters in our program and they have handled coming off the bench really well. To have people like that certainly makes things easier. And things have a way of working themselves out,” Gillespie said. “We were watching film of a game (recently) and there is something I pointed out to the kids and it had nothing to do with the play. It had to do with the fact that Uudi was actually standing up on the bench clapping for somebody who had just scored a basket. I stopped the film just to demonstrate that, where his mindset was, on us doing well and his teammates having success.[adsense type=”square” align=”right”] “When you don’t have quality seniors, sometimes that impact can be felt in the years that follow because they are the group of guys who are grooming and leading the younger guys. If they are going about it the wrong way sometimes it can create a couple-year problem for you.” Collier’s understanding of the game was most evident against Paulsboro at the American Basketball Classic. With Middleton injured and Paulsboro intent on not letting Saintel go wild in the paint, Collier recognized he would be open on the outside. All he did was knock down seven 3’s. “I knew what I was capable of and I knew with John out somebody had to step up. The role I had to play that day was scoring points, where as tomorrow’s game I might have to have 10 assists for us to win and might not have any points,” Collier said. “That game he was amazing. I was proud of him,” Saintel said. “Coming off that injury he had last year and the way he played in the absence of John Middleton was good for us. In the beginning of the game he hit two 3’s so I had a feeling he was going to go off.” Special relationship When your ball handler and your big man have a tight bond, man, that’s an ideal situation for a basketball coach. Collier and Saintel have been good friends since their freshman year, and the chemistry they have off the court is evident when they are in uniform. There is a bond there that is clearly visable, kind of that “brothers from different mothers” mentality. “Since freshman year, Junior has been one of my best friends at school. I’m glad he’s starting to get recognized. He’s getting recognition now, but I think there are better (colleges) that should be looking at him because some of the things he does I can’t even believe I’m seeing,” Collier said. “One time in practice somebody missed a shot and he just glides in, grabs it with his left hand and finishes with a dunk with his right hand. I love playing alongside guys like that. I can just throw the ball up around the rim and they can go get it. It makes it easier for me.” Gillespie said that Saintel understands how this team is set up, and perhaps the maturity level Collier has shown has rubbed off on Saintel. “Obviously Junior is a very talented kid. He’s probably a kid who can score 25 points a game on another team but he’s bought into the fact that that’s probably not going to happen for him with the level of talent we have around him,” Gillespie said. “They all make each other better, it’s not just Uudi. If you look at our games, we’ve had four or five guys in double figures every night.” Not what he seems Gillespie said that to an outsider, Collier might seem like a quiet kid, almost meek at times. Like a lot of teenage boys, Collier doesn’t typically have a lot to say. But Gillespie said that when he is with his teammates, a different side of Collier emerges. Said Gillespie, “He’s quiet from an outsider’s standpoint, but he’s not among the group. In his comfort level he is a different kid. He’s not an animated kid, but when you watch him interact with his peers he’s probably a different kid than most would perceive him to be.” “Off the court he’s a goofy guy. He’s fun to kid around with,” Saintel said. “He’s a good kid. He accepts his role and no matter what the coaches ask him to do, he’s going to do it.” Gillespie said what separates Collier from a lot of players his age who are in his situation is the fact that Collier gets it, knows what he has to do, and is going about his business with a very professional attitude. “When you go about things the right way you tend to get rewarded. We talk to our kids all the time about that. You don’t get rewarded for going about things the wrong way, that’s not how life works,” Gillespie said. “And sports is an extension of life. If you go about things the wrong way you can’t expect to be rewarded at the end of it.” The Spartans may win a state championship this year. They certainly have the talent to do so. Then again, they may not. Either way, Uudi Collier will be able to look back at his high school career with the satisfaction of knowing he did it the right way. “As a senior, I feel like people on the team do look up to me. I try to motivate and support them, give tips to the younger guys about what to do when they get in certain situations in the game and not just yell at them,” Collier said. “I try to teach, because I know when I go they are going to be the guys here and they are going to have ‘Spirit’ on the front of their jerseys and I want them to do just as well as they wanted me to do.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense type=”banner” align=”center”]