Derwin F. "Tank" Collins (born January 28, 1969) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played for Presto Ice Cream in the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...

but is best known for his

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and college careers in the United States.

Early life and high school

A native of

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polyte ...

, 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. She would beat him in one-on-one until he became too good, at which point his older brothers began playing physically with Tank. This laid the foundation for his aggressive style which would come to benefit him later. By the time he got to high school, Collins was utilizing his 6'5" (1.96 m), 215-pound (98 kg) stature to dominate his opponents. He earned the nickname "Tank" from his physique and physicality. One coach said, "He's like a 500-pound gorilla. He can do anything he wants." Collins kept improving, learned to

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...

accurately from beyond 15 feet and quickly became one of the most sought-after high school recruits in California. During his

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 ...

year at Pomona High School, however, he was declared academically ineligible to play most of the season due to poor grades. 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 A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

for two seasons to improve his grades before he was able to play

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I basketball. After his brief junior college career, he chose to play basketball for the

Privateers A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

of the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

(UNO). Between 1989–90 and 1990–91, Collins helped guide UNO to a period of great success. The Privateers won

American South Conference The American South Conference was an NCAA Division I athletic conference that existed from 1987–88 to 1990–91. The charter members were Arkansas State University, Lamar University, Louisiana Tech University, the University of New Orleans, the ...

(ASC) regular season championships, outright or shared, in both years Collins played. Their season records were: *1989–90 season — 21–11 (8–2 ASC) → co-regular season and ASC conference tournament champions *1990–91 season — 23–8 (9–3 ASC) → co-regular season champions New Orleans also qualified for NCAA postseason tournaments in each of his two seasons. They earned a berth into the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT) in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and advanced to the quarterfinal round. In Collins' senior season he led UNO in scoring with a 17.3 points per game average. They advanced to the 1991 NCAA Tournament but lost to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, 55–49, in the opening round. To conclude his collegiate career, Tank was named the

American South Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year The American South Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the American South Conference's most outstanding player. Both the conference and the award were short-lived and only handed out from 1988 to 1991. Four ...

. After college Collins played in the

for Presto Ice Cream.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Tank 1969 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines American men's basketball players Bakersfield Jammers players Great Taste Coffee Makers players New Orleans Privateers men's basketball players Philippine Basketball Association imports Power forwards (basketball) Salt Lake Bruins men's basketball players Sportspeople from Pomona, California Basketball players from Los Angeles County, California Yakima Sun Kings players