Unsung Maryland forward Mimi Collins makes opponents pay for the disrespect
“I just felt my whole head, like a headache in a sense,” Collins said. “While the lady was doing stitches, she was like, ‘Do you want to go back into the game?’ I said, ‘Yeah!’
“It didn’t really hurt. It was just the fact that I had blood in my eyes and in my face, like, that was the only issue.”
The redshirt sophomore didn’t need to return to a 32-point win against Minnesota on Feb. 20, but the moment was another example of how the 6-foot-3 stretch forward has bullied her way into the starting lineup in her first season eligible to play for the Maryland women’s basketball team.
Collins is never at the top of the scouting report like third-team all-American Ashley Owusu and first-team all-Big Ten member Diamond Miller. She’s not the nation’s top three-point shooter in Katie Benzan or all-conference honorable mention like Chloe Bibby. And she isn’t the No. 2 recruit in the nation like Angel Reese.
But there Collins is, game after game, knocking down open jumpers and making opponents pay for seeing her as a weaker link of the six Terps averaging double figures in points.
“It’s great to see how confident she is,” said Owusu, who played on the same high school team as Collins at Paul VI in Virginia. “When people are leaving her wide open, she’s stepping up and knocking down shots. I’m just excited and happy for her because that’s not always easy. People leaving you open, some people may take it as disrespect and may hesitate on the shots. But she’s stepping up with all the confidence in the world and knocking them down.”
Collins grabbed the starting job on the nation’s top offense when Reese broke a bone in her foot four games in and had to sit most of the regular season. Collins turned herself into an indispensable asset to a national championship contender by burning opponents when teams elect to pack the paint against Owusu and Miller.
Collins typically shoots them out of those plans as she knocks down 51.8 percent of her shots from the field and 40.6 percent from behind the arc. She also brings size and strength to the defensive end with the agility to switch onto smaller players. Oh, and there’s the toughness that isn’t shaken by a gaping head wound.
The foundation of her competitiveness can be traced to an athletic family with a father who played basketball for the University of New Orleans and a pair of brothers, including Milan who played safety at Maryland before an injury ended his career. An uncle played football at Colorado.
“I was actually the practice dummy,” Collins said. “It was not a fun sight to see because, you know, my brother played safety. So me getting tackled a lot, it was murder.”
That punishment, however, paid off. Milan called it a family effort to build up that toughness and there’s a sense of pride watching her use that physicality against others. Mimi would train with her brothers and talk about the mentality it takes to be an elite athlete. So there was no real concern as she walked off the court bleeding.
“I teased her about that. I told her, you don’t know how to fight, just running into elbows,” Milan said. “That’s just how we are as a family. We had a rule growing up, if your leg’s not broken, if you could breathe, if you could walk, you’ve got to get up and walk it off. I think she was a little dizzy at first when she got hit with that elbow. But once she got her bearings, head up, walked to the sideline, really didn’t need much help. And that’s just who we are.”
All of that prepared her for a collegiate career that would have its tenuous moments. Collins signed with Tennessee to be closer to her family’s Louisiana roots, but she entered the transfer portal after a coaching change. The final game as a Lady Vols player was an NCAA tournament loss to UCLA, coincidentally in College Park. Collins remembers walking off the court and hearing shouts of “come back home” in the stands. Collins never forgot that feeling.
“I didn’t want to leave,” the Waldorf, Md., native said. “I wanted to go home with my parents, obviously with my family. So it was like hearing that ‘come home’ that stuck with me for months.
“I’m home now.”
Home has been a perfect fit. Collins went from a key contributor off the bench, to competing with Faith Masonius to replacing Reese, to averaging 10.7 points and tying for a team-high 6.2 rebounds. The team was playing so well that when Reese returned late in the season, Collins kept the starting job without any issue. Reese, herself, acknowledged how well the team was playing and didn’t want to mess up the flow.
“Just staying patient within the course,” Coach Brenda Frese said. “She’s playing some of her best basketball. She’s making the right plays at the right time of what is needed. Just seeing her round into form for that consistency factor that we needed on both ends of the floor. That toughness. Her rebounding. Obviously to have a forward like her to stretch it like she can, it makes us extremely difficult to guard.
“Can’t say enough about her mentality.”
That mentality, though, isn’t all rough and tumble. Teammates rave about how fun and caring she is and Milan labeled her “goofy.” For years, he’s kept a video of Mimi going full Beyoncé in the car while singing and dancing to “Crazy in Love” with the full index-finger pointing and neck rolls. He said that’s Mimi in a nutshell — though he still addresses her by her given name of Amira.
“I try to keep her humble and tell her that you’re not in the WNBA,” Milan said. “I’m not going to call you Mimi or I’m not going to be one of these fanboys that are going to put you on a pedestal. It’s like, ‘Okay, we’ve still got to work here. The job’s not done.’
“You’re not my Maya Moore with … a whole bunch of college national championships, a whole bunch of WNBA titles. Once you get there, yeah, I’ll call you Mimi. Or once your jersey’s retired, yeah, I’ll call you Mimi.”
That first national championship is just five wins away.
