Tank Collins

A native of Pomona, California, Collins was not athletic as a child and gave up playing sports. When he was in seventh grade, Collins' father suddenly died. His mother forced him to play basketball to distract him from the death during the summer between his seventh and eighth grade years and would even play Tank herself. Through his first seven games he had been averaging 28.6 points and 17.1 rebounds per game. Collins claimed that his focus on basketball as well as the attention he was receiving from 100+ college scouts distracted him from concentrating on his classwork. He did manage to play in the final few games of the season, but he had already proven himself enough to college recruiters where it did not affect his desirability to college recruiters. ==College and later life==

Tank Collins had to play basketball at a junior college for two seasons to improve his grades before he was able to play NCAA Division I basketball. After his brief junior college career, he chose to play basketball for the Privateers of the University of New Orleans (UNO). Between 1989–90 and 1990–91, Collins helped guide UNO to a period of great success. The Privateers won American South Conference (ASC) regular season championships, outright or shared, in both years Collins played. Their season records were: ==Professional career==

Collins started his professional career with the Bakersfield Jammers of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) until the team folded in December 1991. He averaged 18.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 23 games played. On January 14, 1992, Collins was acquired by the Huntsville Lasers of the Global Basketball Association (GBA). On February 5, he departed the Lasers after he received an offer to play in the Philippines. Collins played for Presto Ice Cream in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) during the 1992 PBA First Conference. Collins joined the Utah Jazz for the 1992 NBA Summer League. He played for the Yakima Sun Kings of the CBA for the 1992–93 season. Collins averaged 20.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and was selected to the 1993 CBA All-Star Game. On September 16, 1993, Collins was traded by the Yakima Sun Kings to the Fargo-Moorhead Fever. ==References==