Collins’ Behavior Disappointing

It is no surprise that Sherron Collins has been busy since Kansas disappointingly lost to Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament. However, it has been the absence in Lawrence, Kan. that has puzzled sports writers, fans and even Coach Bill Self.

On March 29th, Cole Aldrich declared for the NBA Draft in a press conference. The majority of the coaching staff is there and all of the players are there except one: Sherron Collins.

April 7th, Collins again is missing. This time, he’s not a Xavier Henry’s press conference for his announcment for declaring for the NBA Draft.

Five days later, Collins flies to Chicago the day of the Kansas men’s basketball banquet to sign with an agent and doesn’t make it back to receive his second Mr. Jayhawk award.

On April 14th, Sherron Collins tweeted: “Chillin in vegas with my bro it was so hard to leave my bros and fam behind but this move will is the best for all of us I got us fam 1st.”

This is a little hard to translate, but he confirms later on that he is in Las Vegas to work out in preparation for the draft.

Self confirmed to the LJ-World that he is with a personal trainer in Glitter City.

“He needs to be in a place where he’s working out daily where they (trainers) are monitoring his progress,” Self told the Journal World. “I don’t see this as a negative at all. He has completed almost everything academically. He has to fulfill a couple (academic) responsibilities that we visited with his agent about, which he will do.”

Self did voice his disappointment with Collins.

“Him being gone these next few weeks will not hurt him. I don’t see any negativity in him being in Vegas working out. The only thing I am disappointed in is I think he has missed a great opportunity — a couple special moments with his teammates and individually,” Self added.

Collins also missed several other events which including senior events and All-American ceremonies during Final Four weekend in Indianapolis. He also skipped the Wooden Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last week.

“We were all disappointed, and everybody in attendance was, too,” Self told the LJ-World after the awards banquet. “It would have been a special night. It would have been a great memory for him, as would have been the Wooden Awards and being involved at the awards ceremony in Indy. He had some things going on he felt were more important. He missed out on these opportunities that I think he’ll look back over time and maybe wish he’d been there because I think in time they’ll mean a lot to him.”

I understand Collins has a family in Chicago and that he needed to attend to some personal matters but he has upset a lot of people that mean a lot to him and vice versa.

Forget the awards ceremonies and activities in Indianapolis, he needed to be at his teammates’ press conferences and especially at the awards banquet. It’s viewed as a slap in the face. While I’m sure his teammates and coaches will forgive him, it tarnishes his reputation as one of the greatest Jayhawks of all-time (as if his last game in a Kansas uniform didn’t already do that…).

His agent signing could have waited a day, or he could have faxed the papers and had a meeting with his agents at another time.

I’m not going to tell him how to live his life but like Self said, he will regret not being there for his teammates and coaches someday.

And regret will be a deserving punishment.