As a senior, he averaged 15.2 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds while earning first team all-conference recognition in the Indiana Collegiate Conference.
[1] Collier began his coaching career in 1976 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, and then went to the Pacific Northwest, at Seattle Central Community College for a season.
He joined the staff of first-year head coach Don Monson at the University of Idaho in 1978, and they transformed a cellar program in the Big Sky Conference into a top ten team in 1982; the 26–2 Vandals were a #3 seed in the West region and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, falling to the second seed, fourth-ranked Oregon State.
When he learned his alma mater had an opening, "he submitted a 45-page proposal on how to revive the Butler program to then university president Geoffrey Bannister.
[3] The Bulldogs had five 20-win seasons, after just two in the prior 91-year history of the program, and was named Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) coach of the year in 1991, 1997, 1999, and 2000.