Jon Collins is an American former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player, best known for his collegiate career at

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University (EIU) is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradual ...

between 1982–83 and 1985–86. At the time of his graduation, Collins scored a then-school record 1,702 points, was one of five players to have been an All-Mid Continent Conference First Team honoree three times, and was twice named the Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year (later named

The Summit League ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

). In each of Collins' final three seasons he averaged over 18 points per game and scored over 500 total points. During that span, he reached double figures in 87 of 90 games, including a school-record 53 straight. As a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

in 1984–85, he led the team to a 20–10 overall record and their first Mid-Continent Conference championship. Both the

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and ''

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'' named him an honorable mention All-American that year. As a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

, Collins garnered another honorable mention nod by the ''Sporting News'' as he earned his second consecutive conference player of the year award, becoming the first player in conference history to do so. The

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...

selected Collins in the fifth round of the

1986 NBA draft The 1986 NBA draft was held on June 17, 1986. Overview and aftermath This draft holds the record for the most players (out of prospects chosen) who later debuted in the NBA, with 66. Drug and health issues involving drafted players There were ...

, but he never played in the league. After a professional basketball career he worked for

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insurance. Eastern Illinois inducted him into their athletics hall of fame in 1993.

References

# # # # 1960s births Living people American men's basketball players Denver Nuggets draft picks Eastern Illinois Panthers men's basketball players People from Cahokia, Illinois Basketball players from St. Clair County, Illinois Shooting guards 20th-century American sportsmen Year of birth missing (living people) {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub